The Practical Leader

AUGUST 16, 2023

Once I found my life work and pursued career choices that really turned me on, my health miraculously improved. ” Decades of research on the powerful links between leadership and emotional intelligence reinforce the energy connection. When I was a kid, I didn’t enjoy school. So, I was sick a lot and stayed home.

Energy 52

Energy Crisis Absenteeism Leadership 52

Strategy Driven

JULY 6, 2018

Appointed agency heads in a government bureaucracy. Caretakers of corporate bureaucracies, departmental supervisors, short-term clients, referral sources for business development and those who dangle carrots under people’s noses. Those who excelled at every assignment given and each stage of their career. Public officials.

Advice 57

Advice Strategy Company Bureaucracy 57

Management Excellence

JUNE 12, 2022

The challenge for all of us as managers is, how do we access the power of purpose in our role when many above and around us might not be playing with the same sense of motivation? Here are some lessons from some great managers about finding and harnessing the power of purpose in their work.

Management 98

Management Motivation Power Leadership 98

Lead from Within

JUNE 10, 2018

Meet the bureaucracy. After decades of coaching powerful executives around the world, Lolly Daskal has observed that leaders rise to their positions relying on a specific set of values and traits. If your company offers an orientation or training program, try to pay attention–or at least look attentive. THE LEADERSHIP GAP.

Advice 148

Advice Document Bureaucracy Project 148

Harvard Business Review

FEBRUARY 15, 2012

We are delighted to announce the winners of the Beyond Bureaucracy Challenge , the second leg of the HBR/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation. We asked some big questions in our quest to bust bureaucracy: What does it mean to build an organization in which everyone is aligned and inspired by a deeply-felt sense of purpose?

Bureaucracy 12

Bureaucracy Company Agility CIO 12

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 4, 2013

He had learned how to survive in the bureaucracy: don''t make too many waves, don''t cause problems. For Chris it had a powerful effect on his career: he had been passed up three times for a promotion he was repeatedly promised. I wanted to understand the conditions under which people did the very best work of their careers.

Career 17

Career Absenteeism Humphrey Bureaucracy 17

Roundtable Talk

JUNE 22, 2010

The book shared that winners do ALL 4 of the following activities: Strategy - Team based game plans Execution - Top quartile performance Culture - High performance team Flat Structure – Minimize bureaucracy And that they do ANY 2 of 4 following activities: Talent - Build & grow talented employees Innovation - Disruptive, innovative (..)

Tips 34

Tips Team Bottom-up Teamwork 34

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 2, 2014

At some point in your career, you were probably turned down for a job at a new organization in favor of an “internal” candidate. They don’t see the powerful locked-arms effect of the “bias for” that’s prevalent in hiring and promotion decisions. Which brings me to take an unpopular stand: Up with bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy 11

Bureaucracy Diversity Metrics Middle Management 11

You're Not the Boss of Me

MAY 30, 2010

This video speaks to the culture that is prevalent in more workplaces than any of us would like to admit, workplaces that operate on the basis of positional power with an undercurrent of fear. And, over the course of my career, I have also occasionally done some of these things as well. I have seen them.

Video 44

Video P&L Blog Long-term 44

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 10, 2013

Barra began her career at the old GM as a young student engineer. American manufacturing companies were falling behind because of hidebound, privilege-laden bureaucracies that squashed new ideas, failed to listen to voices from below, behaved arrogantly toward customers, and generally stifled innovation. This is a new GM.

Engineering 11

Engineering CFO Industry Bureaucracy 11

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

You don’t have well-defined career paths. They seem to use bureaucracy to make sure everyone is toeing the party line and to prevent splinter groups from breaking off. Bureaucracy is just endemic to the human endeavor. Writing things down is an incredibly powerful technology for managing complicated stuff.

Constraint 8

Constraint Bureaucracy Document Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

You don’t have well-defined career paths. They seem to use bureaucracy to make sure everyone is toeing the party line and to prevent splinter groups from breaking off. Bureaucracy is just endemic to the human endeavor. Writing things down is an incredibly powerful technology for managing complicated stuff.

Constraint 8

Constraint Bureaucracy Document Operations 8

Harvard Business Review

MARCH 14, 2017

While virtually all pharma companies say they encourage risk, in reality the failure of individual drug-development programs frequently results in career damage or even job loss for the research teams involved. Roivant’s first response was to address misaligned incentives.

Innovation 9

Innovation Company Incentives Industry 9

Harvard Business Review

JANUARY 22, 2016

It was a powerful lesson in trusting citizens and designing for their (in this case, myriad) needs, not for the preferences of a well-intentioned bureaucracy. Hack the bureaucracy. Careers get established. There was no spending criteria. City innovators everywhere would do well to resist that temptation when it arises.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Banking Chief Operating Officer Innovation 8

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 1, 2016

Proliferating bureaucracies, expanding org charts, increasingly powerful central staffs, competing departmental agendas—all interfere with the focus on the customer and the deep connection with the details of the business that allowed these companies to grow successfully in the first place. But it can help all sorts of companies.

Company 10

Company Hotels Supply Chain Learning-by-Doing 10

Chart Your Course

JUNE 30, 2016

Studies show that a person’s emotional intelligence (the ability to manage one’s own emotions and the emotions of others) is not only more important than their IQ, but the single most important variable in career and life success. This is the book that launched the idea of EQ into the public domain.

Human Resources 100

Human Resources Talent Management Resources Ulrich 100

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 14, 2015

The Catholic Church is a bureaucracy: a hierarchy populated by good-hearted, but less-than-perfect souls. It is the pathology of power and comes from a superiority complex, from a narcissism which passionately gazes at its own image and does not see the face of others, especially the weakest and those most in need.

Leadership 8

Leadership Power Mentor Bureaucracy 8

Harvard Business Review

JULY 18, 2016

We can use practices from Doug’s approach to the trust-building competency over his 40-year leadership career as a case study for the behaviors leaders should develop as they work to build and sustain trust. This clear manifestation of respect powers huge inflections in organizational culture. Delivering results.

Supply Chain 8

Supply Chain Commitment Report Skills 8

Leading Blog

AUGUST 1, 2020

What gets the ball rolling when we’re feeling stuck in our careers? In Calling B t, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data. From B-school through the big leagues, the business world often places value on logic and analysis. But on creativity? Not so much.

Books 353

Books Hamel Leadership Press Release 353

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Questions are a powerful antidote to hubris , which inevitably arises in a culture that celebrates mastery, values decisiveness, and reveres the top guy (or gal). That turns out to be a powerful approach to leadership in a world of expanding complexity, immense challenges and intense change. Why does inquiry beat certainty every time?

Organization 15

Organization Open-book Bureaucracy CEO 15

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 5, 2012

Like Galinsky, I worry that many in my generation have taken to a trendy career option to the detriment of other roles that may not be as "sexy" or command as many magazine covers, but are critical for long-term social impact. Which is why I echo Galinsky in cautioning our generation against rushing into a career as a social entrepreneur.

System 8

System Bureaucracy Entrepreneur Magazine 8

In the CEO Afterlife

MAY 30, 2012

I spent an entire career espousing the power of creativity, and the companies I touched did very well by it. Bureaucracy lurks on the periphery, waiting for its opening to subvert the lean, mean, business machine. In the final analysis, bureaucracy is every company’s greatest threat. But, beware.

Bureaucracy 245

Bureaucracy Constraint Creativity Discount 245

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 8, 2016

They’d met at university, and although Derek had gone on to graduate school and a career in banking, while Rogier had joined his family construction business and then founded Contect, they’d never lost touch. In Derek’s view, the subsidiaries already had far too much power. The two men went way back.

Case Study 8

Case Study Decentralization CFO Construction 8

LDRLB

JANUARY 16, 2014

All you have to do is unleash their power. I spent an entire career espousing the power of creativity, and the companies I touched did very well by it. Bureaucracy lurks on the periphery, waiting for its opening to subvert the lean, mean, organizational machine. In the final analysis, bureaucracy is your greatest threat.

Bureaucracy 162

Bureaucracy Creativity Constraint Cost 162

Harvard Business Review

JULY 11, 2014

What is important to them in a job, career, team and employer? Removing obstacles: Don’t let politics, bureaucracy, and roadblocks get in the way. Should Marketing or R&D Have More Power? Do you have a compelling elevator pitch and consistent messaging throughout your communications? Let’s do the same for talent.

Marketing 8

Marketing Strategy Brand Metrics 8

Strategy Driven

JUNE 22, 2012

’ What they’re really selling: Electric power plants. Products and services assist the bureaucracy to do its job more efficiently but cannot claim credit for Big Picture success of a client’s entire industry. Perspective is everything…continually changing, reflective and powerful for our future.

Brand 50

Brand Analysis Advertising Software 50

In the CEO Afterlife

FEBRUARY 13, 2017

At one time it looked like “clout” and “scale” would prevail as the most powerful forces in business. Bureaucracy and stagnation set in. My friend’s students saw themselves as entrepreneurial thinkers, yet at graduation, most of them will begin their careers in a corporation. The brain viewed the masses below it as the muscle.

Mass Marketing 100

Mass Marketing Bureaucracy Entrepreneur Class 100

Harvard Business Review

AUGUST 13, 2013

But it is also a complex market, with a reputation for corruption, uncertainty, and bureaucracy. If you think LinkedIn is just for job hunting, you''re missing out on the many ways you can take advantage of this social network to build the professional relationships you need to advance in your career. Leadership Managing yourself'

Books 8

Books Emotional Intelligence Competitive Advantage Storytelling 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 2, 2016

The workforce is comprised of career professionals who are deep experts in their craft. They often came to the Intelligence Community early in their careers and stayed. Reorienting priorities in a large government bureaucracy is hard enough. Its successes are largely unknown; its failures are legendary. We never felt that way.

Management 8

Management Operations Planning Politics 8

Harvard Business Review

DECEMBER 13, 2012

So when staying that extra hour at work at the end of an exhausting day is thought of as "helping my career" rather than "answering emails for 60 more minutes," you'll be much more likely to want to stay put and work hard. This particular form of planning is a really powerful way to help you achieve any goal. Rely on routines.

Stress 8

Stress Succession Self-aware Learning-by-Doing 8

Harvard Business Review

MAY 17, 2016

To find the next wave of growth, they were taking a hard look at their bureaucracy. He had started his career in one of those jobs, as a country manager, and worked his way up. A first step is to understand the five ways that bureaucracy distorts behavior in your company. ” Today, he confessed, “it is the worst job.”

Execution 10

Execution Bureaucracy Self-aware CEO 10

Harvard Business Review

JUNE 7, 2016

They loathe bureaucracy that traps resources and slows decision making. ” Bureaucracy sets in, and bureaucrats don’t feel the insurgent mission. They are likely to view their department budget as the main indicator of their power and influence. If they did, they would view themselves as owners of the entire business.

Bureaucracy 8

Bureaucracy Short-term Budgeting Long-term 8