Not all of business is simple, but the genius of leadership is making it appear simple.
Albert Einstein rightfully said: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." When leaders fail to simply explain complicated subjects, it makes one wonder if they know what they are talking about. It's like listening to a reading of the dictionary.
This reminds me of the episode in Friends in which Joey is writing a letter to support Chandler and Monica in their wish to adopt a child. While writing his letter, Joey discovers the thesaurus and decides to use it for every word in his letter. To Chandler and Monica's horror, the letter had big words but no meaning.
Listening to leaders use big words often leaves followers confused by what is being said and thinking: "Does he really know what this means?" The leader might appear smart on the surface, but the result is people questioning his or her competence.
It is incredibly frustrating when a leader attempts to "wax eloquent", using 50-cent words (an obscure term used to describe a simple idea, thus making the user appear highbrow) and leaves his team completely lost. Big words can make a message devoid of meaning.
In this country, we operate in a fast-growth and complex market. When that is coupled with the reality that we have more nations in our workforce than the United Nations has member countries, it brings to light the need to simplify. Without simplification you will be leaving your team lost as to what your words really mean.
Brian Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast Cable, the largest cable operator in the United States and a significant provider of residential internet and phone services, says it is the leader's job to take complicated things and make them simple, make them fun, make them beautiful and easy. With 24.1 million customers and 100,000 employees, he knows that he must practise "simplexity" or risk losing the business his father started in 1963. If that was true in his relatively static, monoculture environment, how is it more true here?
Einstein's advice was rooted in simplexity, which is bringing simplicity from the midst of complexity. Our business environment is complex enough without leaders making it worse. Clarity is needed. A leadership action compulsory in this region is bringing practical meaning to words, concepts and strategies.
Practising simplexity means providing different ways of looking at an issue and making connections that aren't obvious to others while building solutions and strategy. Leaders need to move between the micro and macro issues when dealing with business challenges. This is how they see the patterns and trends that others miss.
Finding simplexity in the midst of complexity is rooted in a leader's ability to apply logic and common sense. Some argue that common sense is not so common, perhaps because people get lost in complexity rather than applying sound judgement based on a simple perception.
Making complex situations clear for employees and customers is in your control. Be like Einstein, not Joey: keep it simple.
Tommy Weir is an authority on fast-growth and emerging-market leadership, an adviser and the author of The CEO Shift. He is the founder of the Emerging Markets Leadership Center
Company%20Profile
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EXPATS
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Where to submit a sample
Volunteers of all ages can submit DNA samples at centres across Abu Dhabi, including: Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), Biogenix Labs in Masdar City, NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City, NMC Royal Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi, NMC Royal Women's Hospital, Bareen International Hospital, Al Towayya in Al Ain, NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
Country-size land deals
US interest in purchasing territory is not as outlandish as it sounds. Here's a look at some big land transactions between nations:
Louisiana Purchase
If Donald Trump is one who aims to broker "a deal of the century", then this was the "deal of the 19th Century". In 1803, the US nearly doubled in size when it bought 2,140,000 square kilometres from France for $15 million.
Florida Purchase Treaty
The US courted Spain for Florida for years. Spain eventually realised its burden in holding on to the territory and in 1819 effectively ceded it to America in a wider border treaty.
Alaska purchase
America's spending spree continued in 1867 when it acquired 1,518,800 km2 of Alaskan land from Russia for $7.2m. Critics panned the government for buying "useless land".
The Philippines
At the end of the Spanish-American War, a provision in the 1898 Treaty of Paris saw Spain surrender the Philippines for a payment of $20 million.
US Virgin Islands
It's not like a US president has never reached a deal with Denmark before. In 1917 the US purchased the Danish West Indies for $25m and renamed them the US Virgin Islands.
Gwadar
The most recent sovereign land purchase was in 1958 when Pakistan bought the southwestern port of Gwadar from Oman for 5.5bn Pakistan rupees.