Anthony Mayo, author of Their Time: The Great Business Leaders of the 20th Century, shares an for our times: "We discovered that people who were successful over a long period of time were contextually intelligent. They understood the context of their time, how to grow a business, find a new market opportunity and see some possibility others thought was doormat or dying."
In our challenging economic times, it’s too easy to focus on business that isn’t there. When it looks like there are no opportunities, it’s time to look in a different direction or to refocus with fresh eyes. Contextual intelligence suggests that today’s treasure maps must change to adjust to the economic and political context in order to have any hope of finding any treasure.
What organizations do well when others are not? What forces are in play that you can ride instead of fight?
A young teenager was tired of going from establishment to establishment and hearing the same message—“We’re not hiring right now.” He knew he wasn’t alone, but it didn’t make the search for a summer job any easier. Spotting a hand-written sign in one window reading “Not Hiring,” he realized how many managers were just as tired of answering the question as he was in asking it.
On his way home, he passed a sign shop. He stopped, smiled and made a bulk purchase. From that day forward, he had two goals as he entered every establishment—get a job or sell a sign that read “Not Hiring.” In fact, he might well have added a follow-up message—“Now, that you know the innovation I can bring to my work, would you like to reconsider hiring me?”
What opportunities are you missing where you can add value that fits the times?
(Source: Anthony Mayo, author of Their Time: The Great Business Leaders of the 20th Century, Harvard Business School, 2005, quoted in Brendan Coffey, "Leadership Quotient," Executive Travel, May/June, 2007, pp. 42-48.)
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