Leading Blog

OCTOBER 30, 2013

'Working together to solve a common problem provides us with a more complete picture of the problem, and can offer us more options, synergies and solutions, than we could achieve by working alone. Many of the issues we face will require collaboration at some level to solve or even manage them. In Finding Allies, Building Alliances , authors Mike Leavitt and Rich McKeown, state, “The ability to get things done with collaborative networks is the next generation in human productivity.

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Leading Blog

JUNE 14, 2013

'Leadership and character are inseparable. In the Ten Virtues of Outstanding Leaders , philosophers Al Gini and Ronald Green, ask what is good leadership? They insist "that ethics, character, and virtue are essential to real leadership" and anything else is misleadership. They define leadership as: Leadership is not just a set of learned skills, a series of outcomes, a career, a profession, or a title.

Ethics 285

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Leading Blog

SEPTEMBER 2, 2013

'Robert Murray believes that everything you need to be a great leader is already inside you. “It’s in your DNA.” I also agree that many people graduating from our schools today do not have the ability to think critically. “Problem finders are everywhere,” writes Murray. “Innovative problem solvers are rare. Imagination and thinking outside the box is scarce.

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Leading Blog

AUGUST 28, 2013

'Peter Fuda introduces in Leadership Transformed , seven interdependent metaphors to explain and accelerate leadership transformation in leaders at any level. The seven metaphors help you to get a grasp on the concepts and issues involved in leadership development. Leadership development doesn’t happen in parts. These interdependent metaphors emphasize the holistic nature of leadership development.

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Leading Blog

AUGUST 15, 2013

'Too often we think we know exactly what is going on in our minds and what is affecting our behavior. Even though we are committed to our plans we find that the end result bears little resemblance to our best intentions. Somehow we get sidetracked. We face internal pressures, relational pressures, and external pressures to take us off course. These pressures keep us from being consistent with our self-image as capable, competent, and honest individuals.

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Leading Blog

AUGUST 29, 2013

'This is a post by Andrew King co-author of Solving Problems with Design Thinking : Ten Stories of What Works. Applying the tools of design thinking to help your team conquer its goals doesn''t mean hunkering down on your own with an org chart in a dimly lit office to devise the perfect execution strategy. Design thinking is about engaging with your team at its most fundamental levels.

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Leading Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2013

'Thinking outside-the-box is a useful metaphor for thinking creatively or trying to get out of a rut. But practically speaking, it’s not going to happen. Your brain just doesn’t work that way. Your brain needs boxes. You can’t think without them. We create and use mental boxes to organize and use what we know. The reality is, getting out of one box means getting into another.

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Leading Blog

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

'Gaps in what we know can trouble us for a time, but gaps in what we know about ourselves and others can truly keep us up at night. We are unpredictable, messy, complicated, illogical, and fallible. That will never change, “but through a commitment to self-awareness we can all become more highly attuned to the subtle and not-so-subtle red flags that sometimes pull us off course.

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Leading Blog

JUNE 26, 2013

'Leaders don''t always finish well or finish what they start. Leadership sustainability isn''t easy. Given the fact that we all know leaders that haven''t finished well, it''s surprising how many of us have no plan in place to consciously and specifically improve our leadership abilities. Most of the time we wing it. Leadership sustainability is about the commitment to change and growth that is consistent with shifting requirements, not just individually but for the organization as a whole.

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Leading Blog

APRIL 4, 2013

Ethics is about who we are. Ethics is not so much about what is happening around us, it’s much more about what is going on inside of us. Understanding the difference is critical to being a person with good ethics. Ethics are not concerned about what we can do, but what we should do. Ethics align us to our purpose and our values no matter what is happening around us.

Ethics 285

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Leading Blog

MAY 7, 2013

'Phillip Van Hooser has condensed his leadership experience down to 11 ground rules that Leaders Ought to Know. Van Hooser begins with the fact that leaders are made: Leadership is a choice, reinforced by individual effort. In his earlier days, he was moved by a comment that Deming wrote in Out of the Crisis : Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation.

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Leading Blog

MAY 23, 2013

'The Manager and the Monk is one of those books that comes along every now and again, that will shape and inspire your thinking. It is a deeply philosophical book with very practical applications. The book is essentially a conversation between Jochen Zeitz ( @JochenZeitz ), the former Chairman and CEO of Puma, and Father Anselm Grün , the financial manager of the Münsterschwarzach Abby near Würzburg, Germany.

Management 285

Management Leadership Open-book Ethics 285

Leading Blog

MAY 9, 2013

'As leaders we need to understand how to make our ideas catch on. This is most effectively done through word of mouth and social influence. It''s more persuasive than advertising and is more targeted to an interested audience. Jonah Berger shares the science behind word of mouth in Contagious and even teaches a class at The Wharton School by the same name.

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Leading Blog

JANUARY 10, 2013

The number one way leaders grow is listening. Leadership feels like a talking role, but it is predominately a listening role. That can be hard to accept. It feels counterintuitive. A leadership role often makes us feel like we should be talking all the time; like we’re the most important person in the room. We’re not. Listening takes us outside our own heads.

Leadership 285

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Leading Blog

APRIL 29, 2013

'Research shows that givers sink to the bottom of the success ladder. Givers may make others better off, but they do so at their own expense. But here''s the thing, givers also land at the top of the ladder with takers and matchers in the middle. Adam Grant explores in Give and Take , what separates givers at the bottom and top. And the difference is not competence, but the kinds of strategies givers use and the choices they make.

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Leading Blog

MARCH 28, 2013

If you wonder if you should step up and lead, this book is for you. Mediocre Me by Brigadier General John Michel is a challenge to think differently about your role in the world. “Instead of the term leader being synonymous with someone who strives to use their influence to build value into their surroundings,” writes Michel, “it is more likely we associate it with someone doing whatever it takes just to keep the routine going.

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Leading Blog

APRIL 18, 2013

'It’s not uncommon to think of personal reinvention as being somewhat contrived or manipulative. But reinventing you isn’t about becoming what you are not, but more of who you are. In Reinventing You , Dorie Clark says “it’s about taking control of your life and living strategically. Who do you want to be? And what do you need to get there?” It’s about making sure that our personal brands reflect the reality of our lives (Facebook notwithstanding).

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Leading Blog

MARCH 12, 2013

Struggle is a part of any human endeavor and leadership is no different. The problem is we view struggle as a negative. But struggle is how we grow. Without them we can’t reach our full potential as leaders. We like to think of our leaders as flawless. We like to be perceived as flawless—or at least we like people to think we have everything under control.

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Leading Blog

FEBRUARY 26, 2013

To trust or not to trust is a decision we all make every day. As leaders, we can influence people’s decision to trust not only us, but others in the organization and even the organization itself. Robert Hurley has identified ten specific trust factors in The Decision to Trust. The first three factors are trustor-related: the level of risk tolerance, the trustor’s level of psychological adjustment, and the power position of the trustor.

Ethics 285

Ethics Commitment Influence Positioning 285

Leading Blog

JUNE 10, 2013

'Michael Raynor and Mumtaz Ahmed went looking for those companies that were good enough for long enough to be considered exceptional and to rule out luck as the primary source of their performance. What they found they present in The Three Rules : How Exceptional Companies Think. When they looked at behavior they found that the exceptional companies did better than the average companies because they did whatever they did "right.

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Leading Blog

MARCH 29, 2013

In their book From Smart to Wise , Prasad Kaipa and Navi Radjou state that wise leadership succeeds where smart leadership cannot. Wise leadership isn’t about how smart you are. It’s about “transcending it and gaining a broader perspective.” Importantly, “That perspective enables us to rein in our smartness and harness it to serve a larger purpose in an ethical and appropriate manner.

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Leading Blog

JANUARY 14, 2013

We know every behavior begins with a thought. So if we want to have lasting change, the beginning point has to be our thinking. Behavioral change is only surface change if we don’t first change the thinking behind those behaviors. And it won’t stick. It will keep coming out in so many ways we won’t be able to keep up with it because we haven’t changed the thinking behind it.

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Leading Blog

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013

'Part of the reason we get stuck and part of the reason we lack the feedback we need is that we are surrounded by the familiar. The familiar that continuously reminds us that we are doing the best we can and that we are doing it right. We are mired in the familiar when what we need is the strange. We need strangers. “These strangers,” writes Alan Gregerman in The Necessity of Strangers , “whom we quickly choose to ignore or form an opinion about, are the people who force us out of our comfort zo

Analysis 284

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Leading Blog

APRIL 15, 2013

'When you have the power usually associated with leadership. it''s easy to begin thinking that you can do anything you want. You can treat people any way you want. Sometimes it works in the short term, but it never works in the long term. It''s self-centered and it eventually kills your influence. It''s the core message of Nice Companies Finish First by Peter Shankman: "Being a selfish bastard who doesn''t believe the rules apply to you simply won''t get you very far.

Company 284

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Leading Blog

MAY 11, 2013

'Ironically, the more self absorbed we are, the less self-aware we are. Self-awareness is vital to the development of a leader. But it''s not navel-gazing. It is not an inward focus. It is an outward focus. Its ultimate goal is to improve our connection and effectiveness with others. The self absorbed leader struggles with self-awareness and emotional intelligence because self-awareness is about how we are perceived by others.

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Self-aware Emotional Intelligence Learning-by-Doing Operations 284

Leading Blog

JANUARY 17, 2013

This is a guest post by Michael Carroll, author of Fearless at Work. At work, we want our jobs, assignments, projects and "stuff" to move along smoothly: achieving objectives, getting promoted, winning contracts. It's almost a twitch reflex to want our jobs to behave themselves. And if we are honest, sometimes we may even secretly wish that the workplace could deliver a continuous, uninterrupted "yes"— "yes" I got the plum job; "yes" the budget was approved; "yes" the redesign has been accepted.

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Leading Blog

NOVEMBER 15, 2013

'As a leader it is easy to think that we alone possess all anyone needs to know; to think that our view of the world is the right one. After all the view looks pretty good from where we sit. We’ve thought everything through. We have access to more information than anyone else. We have a way do doing things and it works—for us. So what rational person would question you?

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Tools Motivation Course Execution 283

Leading Blog

JANUARY 24, 2013

Many, if not most good ideas are not good forever. Over time they lose the luster they once had. They become irrelevant and ineffective. The universal danger we all face, is that we get so comfortable with what we do that never recognize that moment when it no longer serves the why. So it is good to periodically take a look at why we do what we do. But it is important to remember that they were once good ideas.

Information 284

Information Development Leadership 284

Leading Blog

NOVEMBER 21, 2013

'Ray Davis, CEO of Umpqua Bank, writes in Leading Through Uncertainty , that following your intuition is important at any time, but especially so in uncertain conditions. Intuition shouldn’t be thought of as being irrational but rather a “powerful, heightened state of awareness.” Intuition isn’t a magical process that happens inside of you. Its quality is dependent on how well you are informed by the reality of what’s happening around you.

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Uncertainty Banking Creativity Innovation 283

Leading Blog

NOVEMBER 4, 2013

'You don’t need to be a guru. You don’t need to be rich. You don’t need to invent the next big thing to be a success. What you need to do, says Kevin Kelly is find an ordinary idea and implement that idea with xceptional execution. You can start with what you have from where you are. The list of reasons why we shouldn’t do something is often long and persuasive.

Execution 283

Execution Self-aware Loyalty Project 283

Leading Blog

MAY 13, 2013

'Human beings—and that includes most leaders—are relational. Self-leadership is fundamental to good leadership, but it is not the end-game. Self-awareness for self-awareness sake has a limited value. Through introspection and reflection we can get to know a great deal about ourselves—as far as we know. The problem is that we don''t know what we don''t know.

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Self-aware Audience Workshop Learning-by-Doing 284

Leading Blog

JANUARY 28, 2013

Lance Armstrong once wrote: “I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough.” Often we begin the race with solid values.

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Leading Blog

APRIL 26, 2013

'Injustices happen. Bad things happen to good people. And when they do, we need to be sure we are taking away the right lesson. When something bad happens we naturally prefer to process the injustice in a way that makes us coming out as the victim; we are right, they are wrong. Sympathy is in our corner. But, if we are honest with ourselves, rarely do we find ourselves in a situation where we played no part.

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Kaplan Politics Advice Operations 283

Leading Blog

OCTOBER 13, 2013

'Malcom Gladwell wants us to rethink how we think about the giants in our lives whether they be outsized opponents, disabilities, misfortunes, or oppression. We all face or have faced odds that seemed to be stacked against us. Odds that we are forced to deal with. In David and Goliath , Gladwell shares two ideas. First, “much of what we consider valuable in our world arises out of these kinds of lopsided conflicts, because the act of facing overwhelming odds produces greatness and beauty.

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Storytelling Development Environment Resources 283

Leading Blog

DECEMBER 2, 2013

'In times of great uncertainty, we must be leaders. In Leading Through Uncertainty , Ray Davis writes, “Effective leadership is motivating, and it can and should be the energy that propels a company through inevitable waves of change. Poor leadership can lead to disaster and has sunk more than a few companies and governments alike.” Davis divides the book into three parts: leading yourself, leading your organization, and leading the way.

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Uncertainty Banking Construction Energy 282

Leading Blog

FEBRUARY 18, 2013

G REAT LEADERSHIP doesn’t just happen. Great leaders are revealed in extraordinary circumstances, but they are made long before. A person’s quality of leadership radiates from their character. Consequently, it’s never too early to begin your leadership development. George Washington filled many roles in his lifetime: a surveyor, frontier explorer, businessman, land speculator, soldier, farmer and statesman.

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Gordon Bond Education Construction 283

Leading Blog

JULY 24, 2013

'"Belief has been a most powerful component of human nature that has somewhat been neglected," says Peter Halligan, a psychologist at Cardiff University. "But it has been capitalized on by marketing agents, politics and religion for the best part of two millennia.". Tom Asacker reveals the role of belief in leadership in The Business of Belief. For leaders and organization, belief is the issue.

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