Novus Leadership Institute

Helping you succeed despite relentless change

Insights

Core themes of recent posts

by Leave a Comment

What are the core themes of what you’ve been publishing?

I thought I’d check some of my posts for the past few years.

Here is what I did … it’s simple and an exercise you can replicate for any social media (LinkedIn in my case):

  • Download your posts (“shares” on LinkedIn)
  • Upload the content to an AI engine of your choice
  • Ask for theme analysis and grouping

I had Grok analyze a few years of my LI posts … below are the results (had to be edited to fit within LinkedIn post length limits). The AI summary was reasonably accurate with a just a few misses here and there”

  1. The Art of Leadership in Uncertain Times
    • Focus: Leadership strategies, responsibilities, and mindset shifts in the face of crises, uncertainty, and change. Leadership is a recurring theme, with emphasis on adaptability, feedback, and resilience—key traits for navigating today’s volatile world.
    • Example Posts:
      • 3/2/2022: Observing leaders during crises as a learning tool.
      • 2/23/2022: Early warning signs of work going astray.
      • 2/1/2022: Addressing fear as a leader.
  2. AI: Opportunity, Risk, and the Human Edge
    • Focus: The role of AI in business and the irreplaceable human elements it cannot replicate.
    • Example Posts:
      • 4/24/2024: Salieri vs. Mozart analogy—AI as a technical tool needing human artistry.
      • 5/24/2024: AI replacing executive jobs—questioning its limits.
  3. Breaking the Industrial Mindset: Knowledge Work Reimagined
    • Focus: Critiques of industrial-era practices in modern knowledge work and suggestions for improvement.
    • Example Posts:
      • 3/14/2025: The persistence of “fast-paced” job descriptions and the “always busy” trap.
      • 11/16/2022: Avoiding destructive efficiency.
      • 6/15/2022: Applying 80/20 to employee performance management.
  4. The Power of Communication: Bridging Gaps and Building Trust
    • Focus: The critical role of effective communication in business success, with examples of failures and solutions.
    • Example Posts:
      • 6/24/2024: Language and thinking skills in customer service.
      • 4/6/2022: The simplest change management tool: a shared glossary.
  5. Change as Opportunity: Thriving Amid Uncertainty
    • Focus: Embracing inevitable uncertainty and change as drivers of innovation and competitive advantage if approached proactively.
    • Example Posts:
      • 3/3/2025: Uncertainty as a friend in strategy, enemy in execution.
      • 11/11/2020: Innovating forward instead of waiting for “normal.”
  6. The Productivity Paradox: Doing Less to Achieve More
    • Focus: Rethinking productivity beyond busyness and mere activity.
    • Example Posts:
      • 2/20/2024: 4D prioritization (dump, delay, delegate, do) with AI.
      • 7/24/2024: 10X productivity—myth or reality, and its implications.
  7. Building Teams That Win
    • Focus: The centrality of people management, development, and culture in organizational success.
    • Example Posts:
      • 2/9/2022: Winning the talent war by improving people management.
      • 11/14/2023: Organizational development as key to growth.
      • 9/23/2022: The magic of peer mentoring.
  8. Navigating the Future: Strategy in a Digital Age
    • Focus: Strategic insights for staying competitive.
    • Example Posts:
      • 10/25/2024: Assessing organizational capability to navigate change and economic turbulence
      • 3/7/2025: Recession-proofing your company.
      • 11/15/2023: Signs your company isn’t acting fast enough.

You can find many of the posts on this website as well … look in the post list or use the search function.

“Only the fastest survive”

by Leave a Comment

“In the AI era, only the fastest survive”
– recent banner ad headline on the Wall Street Journal front page

How many times have you seen ads similar to “In the ____ era, only the fastest survive”?

Speed can indeed be important.

Ironically, most organizations behave in opposite ways.

And most are rarely willing to make the commitment and investment to speed things up in a sustainable way.

Rather, the search is often for a “silver bullet” that will change things, yet also allow people not to meaningfully change (especially leaders).

AI can definitely help, but only if expectations are appropriate.

Fundamentally, the most important first question is “do we need to be the fastest?” The implied answer in the statement “only the fastest survive” is “yes” … but is that really the case? (If so, don’t tell lions 😉

If truly yes, then figure out how AI can help.

“Fast paced” = common productivity mirage

by Leave a Comment

Knowledge work is still in the grips of industrial mindset 66 years after Peter Drucker named it.

Exhibit A: how many job postings or descriptions have the words “fast paced” in them?

The phrase invokes some vague expectations of “speed” … whatever that means, since it’s rarely explained.

How does someone look “fast paced” in a job? Always be doing something, so when someone sees you, you will look busy.

The assumption: for maximum speed (assumed to be equate to productivity), we will always be doing something.

This is where a common productivity vanity metric often rears its head: “utilization” … which usually degrades into “how much time are you doing something“?

This then translates to “always look busy” for job survival.

It’s hard to look busy when you’re thinking … and thinking when needed is a key part of knowledge work.

The paradox: as long as “productivity” and job success is about looking busy, we won’t achieve higher productivity and job success.

How can you describe a job – whether for advertising an opening or as part of performance management – so that there are meaningful metrics?

Uncertainty is your friend

by Leave a Comment

Wait … how can uncertainty be my friend?

I also hear clients and past students saying “… but you said uncertainty was our enemy!”

Both are true.

The difference is where the uncertainty lies.

Knowledge work enemy

In knowledge work, uncertainty is an enemy during planning and execution of initiatives, projects, and so on. We often can’t say for certain how much something will cost, how long it will take, or even that we know exactly what we (or the market) want.

All we know for sure is that we are likely to be wrong – not exactly correct – a lot on the journey.

That causes problems. Our internal business budgeting systems aren’t geared for any uncertainty. People can have a hard time with not being right all the time. And so on.

We can compensate with feedback-based approaches and keep adjusting until we hit the target (see prior posts about this – here’s an example – or the book).

Strategy friend

Uncertainty in the market, however, can spell opportunity.

And the more uncertainty, the more potential opportunity.

People and businesses often either “freeze up” or retreat in the face of uncertainty.

We saw this during the pandemic and for some time afterward. As I noted then, fear and a strong desire to “go back to normal” reigned when the focus could have been on innovating forward.

When competitors are standing still, you can move forward and gain advantage.

When competitors are retrenching and moving backward you can gain advantage by just maintaining your position … or really gain advantage by moving forward.

It’s much easier to “win the game” when no one else if playing!

Do you lead effectively for both success and satisfaction?

by Leave a Comment

Worried about the economy?

Looking to increase efficiencies/productivity?

Make sure everyone is contributing to the bottom line?

If so, consider actions that affect both success AND satisfaction …

Why?

You can achieve either success or satisfaction alone.

Focusing on one, though, is not a good idea. Very few businesses can survive and thrive long-term that way. Or even short-term if you must take major actions to weather economic storms.

Unfortunately, research indicates focusing on both isn’t common. 90%+ of leaders have a strong inclination toward success or satisfaction … not both.

  • Success is results like better efficiency, productivity, competence, and profitability.
  • Satisfaction is more oriented toward enjoyment, relationship strengthening, and increasing commitment. This is usually reflected in higher morale, engagement, dedication, loyalty and passion.

The key is to recognize the preference and work toward high performance in both.

We have an assessment to help you with this.

It describes your your current ability to consistently achieve both success and satisfaction, along with suggestions for any improvements.

If you are a leader, contact us to try the assessment for free.