Tag Archives: Leaders

Serena Williams’ Secret for Never Cracking Under Pressure Can Work for You Too

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It’s used by sports stars and Zen masters, but it can help business leaders handle high-pressure situations too.

by Jessica Stillman

Watch Serena Williams play at Wimbledon today and you’ll no doubt be left in open-mouthed awe at the speed, strength, and precision of her play. But perhaps the most impressive thing about one of the best tennis players ever isn’t her incredible physical prowess, it’s her unshakeable concentration. The woman never cracks under pressure.

How does she shake off the incredible stress of a center-court match point? As David Robson recently reported for the BBC (hat tip Quartz), the answer is a powerful but little known technique called “the quiet eye.”
Control your eyes, control your stress.

If the term sounds a bit like something a meditation teacher would say, that’s no accident. The technique shares strong similarities with practices used by Zen masters, but the idea was brought to the world of sports by kinesiologist Joan Vickers. While studying exceptional sports performance for her PhD, Vickers hooked high-performing athletes up to a gizmo that tracked their eye movements. Continue reading →

The Technologies Senior Leaders Plan to Deploy in the Coming Years

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by Andrew Shipilov

Cloud computing is expected to take a back seat to AI, big data analytics and blockchain.

Despite all the hype, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, blockchain and 3D printing have had a small impact on businesses in the last few years. Big data analytics has had the biggest impact, according to a survey I conducted with my colleague Nathan Furr of 317 INSEAD MBA alumni and participants in our Executive Education programmes. Our respondents were mostly senior executives and around 50 percent of them worked in large companies.

Big data analytics, cloud and machine learning have all had a significant impact on business in the past two years. Big data analytics seems to have changed almost all business areas (creation of new revenues, core business protection, improvements in operational efficiency, new customer acquisition, increased retention and loyalty of existing customers). Cloud computing primarily helped improve operational efficiency.

Continue reading →

Senior Director, GBS Service Center Lead (Latin America)

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  • The Latin America Service Center Lead is responsible of the overall GBS center operations and the process delivery
  • He/she is responsible for managing all KPls and SLAs within the captive center (including Customer Experience metrics)
  • Also responsible to drive a Continuous Improvement culture in the center to provide benefits to the business
  • Supervises: LA Operations Director, LA RTR Director, HTR Director, LA Transformation/Projects Office, LA Internal Control Manager and Customer Experience Manager
  • Staff Size: 300-500
  • Service catalog covers 30+
  • Scope: Latin America mainly with some sub-processes running through Americas/globally

Responsibilities

  • Develops, leads and manages regional GBS organization
  • Assures quality and timeliness of service delivery
  • Ensures that results are in accordance with agreed metrics and the operating plan
    • Builds quality systems into all production process
    • Executes against GBS operational objectives
    • Engages with clients to ensure the process and deliverables are aligned to their needs
    • Enhances the process & services by implementing Continuous Improvement initiatives

Manages resources and work environment of captive center

  • Allocates resources based on demand
  • Identifies, implements and manages process and facilities modifications
  • Creates culture of GBS mission in Center
  • Owns Captive center cost and pipeline

Please let me know if you could be interested or might know someone who might be.

Thank you.

Larry Janis I Managing Partner I Integrated Search Solutions Group

P-516-767-3030 I C-516-445-2377

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How humility keeps your ego from hijacking your leadership and team success

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By Angela Kambouris

Ego is one of the biggest problems that humanity faces. Being egoless is not possible; however, you can keep yours in check to create business success.

When you are over-invested with your own self-worth, ego is running the show. Each person has beliefs and fears about their value, and when under stress, defensive or over-inflated behaviors play out. When on stage, leading an executive meeting or being a part of a mentorship relationship, your attention can be preoccupied by your view of yourself.

Each person has a set of criteria you unconsciously judge yourself against. When you measure up, you feel pride and like a leader. When you don’t, feelings of uncomfortableness, pressure or fear come out to play. Fight-flight behaviors are triggered, and reactionary behaviors will often result in misalignment of the true leader you are. Unhealthy dynamics take over your own leadership and team success.

Gargantuan egos still may create leaders who achieve phenomenal and impactful success. Kayne West holds a strong ego and has talent, strength and vision. Ego may be the driver to create success, but look at the costs. You see it being played out across the media — dysfunctional personal lives, infighting in organizations and careers blowing up at some point. Continue reading →

The face of leadership – and how your team might be reading into it

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 By Shannon Waller

Even a strong, skilled leader can send their team into a tailspin of self-doubt — and at worst, fear — just by being unaware of the emotion or lack of it writ large on their face. In the same way, a naturally serious or flat demeanor can wreak havoc on people’s sense of safety and confidence.

A team member can immediately go into panicked guessing mode. “What could be wrong? Did I say something I shouldn’t have? Is something bad happening to the company? What’s going on here? Yikes!”

The Worst-Case Scenario

Have you ever walked out of your office after a particularly troubling conversation with a client, still replaying the conversation in your head and not been aware of anyone around you? You pass one of your team members in the hallway and don’t even hear their cheery “Good morning!” You almost run into another colleague and barely utter an apology.

Because this is not how you usually treat people, and your team members don’t have any context to understand the serious and distracted look on your face, not to mention why you’re actually ignoring them, they immediately think that something is wrong and that it’s going to affect them. Continue reading →