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HEARING IS NOT LISTENING
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A leader who listens is not swayed, judgemental

Several years ago, I met a chief executive officer who had been hired to
turn around a company that was foundering on the rocks. He was an
intelligent and seasoned executive and had arrived with a detailed set of
proposals to rescue the business from the brink.

In his first town hall meeting, he repeatedly promised to listen and
rebuild. Over the next two months, he slashed and burned his way through
the organisation. The workforce was cut by almost half. It was the
appropriate strategy to adopt at that time. But after the dust settled,
the remaining executives mutinied.

They had stayed on because of the new CEO's promise to listen and rebuild.
But he had not kept his promise. Instead, he had remained deaf. It was not
long before the board decided to show the CEO the door.

The story above does not illustrate whether a scalpel or chainsaw should
have been used to fix shrinking sales and profits. Rather, it shows what
can happen when a CEO fails to listen to key people both inside and
outside the organisation.

Effective listening skills would have enabled the CEO to build and sustain
trust with the troops, seek out different points of view, deepen his
insight into the company, which would have led to clear thinking for the
rebuilding phase.

As they move higher in positions of authority, leaders have development
needs that are linked to their listening skills. The higher they are in
the decision-making hierarchy, the more input of information is required.
Hence, the decision-maker must develop his listening ability.

Ms Carmine Gallo, who wrote an article entitled "Why leadership means
listening" said: "Great leaders are great listeners."

Yet, listening well is increasingly one of the many difficult things for
leaders in transition to do because of the daily demands placed on them.
Some executives don't have the time or interest to listen. Others may
avoid saying they are listening so as not to suggest they don't know
what's going on.

Employee attitudes have changed. They want to be asked for feedback and to
be heard. Some leaders in transition like to use the word "listening"
without understanding what it means, so long as it gives the impression of
"connectedness". Others actually mean "hearing".

Hearing is not listening. In hearing, one is aware of the words but may
not process them. In listening, one needs to understand the words, reflect
and think clearly, before embarking on clear talk.

We hear by chance but listen by choice.

When a leader hears by chance, his views are easily swayed. He may hold
conflicting opinions, but is unable to come up with clear thoughts because
he lacks focus and direction.

A leader who listens by choice develops clear thought because he is not
judgemental. He pauses to think. He questions what is being said. He
separates facts from opinions. He has an open mind on divergent views and
is ready to adjust his position.

He is assertive without being commanding. He stands by his beliefs and
values, and provides sufficient facts to support his arguments. He allows
others to share their views, but he eventually influences them with clear
talk.

A successful executive known for his expertise in turning around companies
was mentoring a young intern. This is how their conversation went:

Intern: What tip can you give me on leadership?

Executive: One word.

Intern: What is that one word?

Executive: Execution.

Intern: How do you know if you have executed well?

Executive: One word.

Intern: And what is that new one word?

Executive: Decisions.

Intern: How does one know if a decision is the correct one?

Executive: One word.

Intern: Yeah, I know, it's another one word. Just tell me the one word!

Executive: Thought.

That response stopped the intern in his tracks. Finally, he decided to
paraphrase what he had heard so far.

Intern: So, to execute well, one needs right decisions. Right decisions
come from having clear thought. Now, do tell me, how can one develop clear
thought?

Executive: One word.

Intern: Oh, goodness, I hope this is the last one word. What is it?

Executive: Listen.

By now, the intern was tearing his hair out. With his last shred of
patience, he nearly screamed: "Sir, can you tell me your one final word?
How can one learn to listen well?"

The executive smiled and said without hesitation: Practise.

BAD NEWS, FANS: ROWLING'S NEW BOOK IS NOT FOR SALE
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Harry Potter author J K Rowling has written a new book - her first since
the final best-seller about the boy wizard came out earlier this year, she
told BBC radio.

But most fans will not be able to buy a copy of The Tales Of Beedle The
Bard - only seven copies will be produced, with six going to people
involved with the Potter books, and a seventh being auctioned.

The book is a volume of five wizarding fairy tales left to Potter's friend
Hermione Granger by headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the seventh and last
Potter book, Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, which came out in July.
One of the tales appears in Deathly Hallows, but the remaining four are
told for the first time.

Each copy of the book is handwritten and illustrated by Rowling on
translucent vellum paper, and is leather bound and covered with silver and
jewels.

Rowling said that writing the book had helped her to come to terms with
the end of Potter. "It's like coming up from a deep dive I suppose," she
said.

"I've been writing about the world. It's not about Harry, Ron and
Hermione, but it comes from that world, so it's been therapeutic in a way,
a nice way to say goodbye" although it was "very, very difficult" and
"very, very, very sad" to end the series.

The author also revealed that she was working on a "half-finished book for
children".

The seventh copy of The Tales Of Beedle The Bard will be auctioned by
Sotheby's in London on Dec 13 in aid of Rowling's charity The Children's
Voice, which campaigns to help vulnerable children across Europe.

Sotheby's estimate that the book will sell for up to £50,000 ($150,000). -
AFP

REWIRING BRAINS TO CREATE VISIONARIES
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Researchers offer the tantalising prospect of mapping brilliant minds


Ross Wallace
ross@mediacorp.com.sg

PIERRE Balthazard (picture) wants to rewire our brains and build an army
capable of conquering the world - the business world, that is.

The 47-year-old Arizona State University researcher is no mad scientist,
but if he has his way, the corridors of power will soon be crowded with
people whose leadership abilities owe less to heredity and more to
training using high technology.

For the past 15 years, Dr Balthazard has been working to assess the
relationship between humans and machines, in particular, the ways in which
technology can measure and change the way people think.

With his latest project, the Canadian-born management professor aims to do
nothing less than map the minds of society's power brokers and use the
resultant blueprint to turn habitual followers into driven and decisive
leaders.

"What we're doing," Dr Balthazard told Weekend Xtra over the phone
recently from his office in Phoenix, Arizona, "is trying to find out if
there are well-defined patterns of electrical activity in the human brain
that would allow us to conclude, for example, that there is a 95-per-cent
chance that this person is a narcissist or that there's a 98-per-cent
probability of that person being perceived by others as inspirational or
visionary".

More than that, he and fellow scientists, Dr Jeffrey Fannin, Dr Robert
Thatcher and Dr David Waldman - experts in neurotherapy, neuropsychology
and leadership theory, respectively - are using their Leadership
Neuroscience Project to determine whether a leader's mind actually works
differently than that of someone who is less of a trailblazer.

The project involves gathering some 75 participants and subjecting them to
tests that are designed to establish a link between brain activity and the
qualities that define effective leadership (see box).

The test results suggested that those considered visionary leaders had
much higher levels of brain activity than non-visionaries in areas of the
brain associated with visual processing and the organisation of
information.

Simply put, thinking differently is what sets an inspirational leader
apart from the crowd.

But can the brains of those without the in-born ability to think like a
leader be changed such that they too have the potential to become
effective captains of industry or head honchos in academia, the military
or the civil service?

Given that their research is still in its early stages, Dr Balthazard and
his colleagues are keeping their expectations in check. But he said: "We
are running a very serious technical investigation. Unlike, say, some of
the unscientific work that has previously appeared attempting to link
neuroscience and emotional intelligence."

Still, there are naysayers who claim that mapping the brain is one thing
but altering it through "brain-training" is something else entirely.

In a report on Dr Balthazard's research in The Wall Street Journal in
September, even his collaborator, Dr Waldman, admitted he views
brain-training "with a grain of salt" because of the complexity of
effective leadership.

In the same article, pioneering brain researcher Michael Gazzaniga of the
University of California voiced concern that too much hype and the weight
of public expectations could undermine efforts to apply neuroscience to
the management field.

"A lot of this will end up as science fiction," Professor Gazzaniga was
quoted as saying.

Even as Dr Balthazard acknowledged the potential for oversimplification
and misuse of his research, he maintained that all the work they are
conducting conforms to accepted scientific protocols and is subject to a
strict peer review process.

Though the modest scale of their research so far would suggest that
success is by no means assured, Dr Balthazard is confident of one day
assembling the world's first reference database of effective leadership,
which would theoretically allow someone lacking in leadership qualities to
consciously control their brainwave activity to bring about improvements.

"Once we have this sort of diagnostic tool in place," he said. "We could
look at someone and determine the extent to which there's a neurological
basis for a lack of confidence, emotional instability, and then take steps
to modify their behaviour."

But lest anyone think such a breakthrough would mark the dawn of an era
when electroencephalograph (EEG)-driven leadership incubators would churn
out an endless stream of Gandhis, Lee Kuan Yews and Jack Welches -
assembly-line-style - Drs Balthazard and Waldman cautioned that there's
more to a leader than a fixed set of measurable skills.

"The world is made up of two types of people: Victims and
problem-solvers," said Dr Balthazard. "So, even if you give some people
the ability to improve, if the will isn't there, it's not going to
happen."

In other words, newly-minted leaders can count on the fact there'll always
be a steady supply of followers to do their bidding - as well as people
standing in the way of the leaders' initiatives.

SOUND BITES FROM MICHEL LALINE
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FOR most of his life, chocolatier Michel Laline didn't particularly like
chocolate.

At the age of 45, however, the former architect, hungry and craving for
new experiences, started dabbling in chocolate making. It became a
full-time occupation and he opened the first Chocolat Factory in Barcelona
four years later, in 2000.

Here recently to open his second Singapore store at Paragon (the first is
at VivoCity), Laline tells us how he gets his chocolates flown in fresh
and explains his late career switch.

You were an award-winning architect and designer in Barcelona with very
little interest in chocolate before you turned 45. What happened then?

I felt like I needed to do something more with my creativity, without the
influence of clients. Chocolate poses a compelling challenge because you
have to mould it within a few minutes at the precise temperature of 31
degrees Celsius before it turns solid.

You apprenticed at a patisserie for a year and did research for three
years before opening Chocolat Factory. What was that like?

I worked day and night, and I never took a weekend or a holiday off. I
called my teacher once after my apprenticeship to ask for help and he
said: "No, you must do this on your own now." I had to figure out a lot of
things myself, even after picking up the basics from him. It was a lot of
hard work.

There are chocolates with salt and tea at Chocolat Factory. Is there
anything you wouldn't mix chocolate with?

Anchovies and cheese, which is what people in Spain are doing. Those
tastes do not go well with chocolate.

I think bonbons don't always have to be a surprise, otherwise it will be
very stressful to eat one!

Are the products in Singapore from the factory in Spain?

Yes, they are air-flown by Singapore Airlines. It's the only airline that
can get them here within 24 hours, so they're fresh.If you are stranded on
an island with only one type of chocolate, which kind would it be?

Chocolate made with cacao beans from Sao Tome (an island off the west
coast of Africa). The taste is perfect and balanced, unlike those from
South America or Java, which I find too acidic. - Serene Huang