Positive Leadership: 'Leadership'
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
Friday, December 07, 2012
Thursday, December 06, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Importance of Company Culture and Clear Values
Lessons on the importance of company culture and clear values:
Lesson 1: Hierarchy and respect are not mutually exclusive
You have to make sure you never confuse the hierarchy that
you need for managing complexity with the respect that people deserve. Because
that’s where a lot of organisations go off track, confusing respect and
hierarchy, and thinking that low on hierarchy means low respect; high on the
hierarchy means high respect. So hierarchy is a necessary evil of managing
complexity, but it in no way has anything to do with respect that is owed an
individual.
Lesson 2: Culture is how a company gets things done
For example, most companies in software get things done through people.
So their machinery is people, and to put it in technology terms, people are the
hardware and values are the operating system. So the culture starts with
people with a common operating system around values and then, once you have
that, you can build processes around how you actually get things done on top of
that. But clarity around the hardware and the operating system is first
and foremost, so it’s about people and values.
Lesson 3: A values-driven culture can be a powerful
motivator
People generally want to belong to something of
greater purpose that’s larger than they are. They’re just waiting for it to
come along. And a culture around values is part of that. People say, ‘I
want to be on that team, that club, because they believe in something and I
actually believe in that, so I want to belong to that.’
Lesson 4: Values can (and must) provide a balance
Think about your values in pairs, and there is a tension
or a balance between them. For example; listening and leadership;
accountability and generosity; humility and audacity. You’ve got to have the
humility to see the world as it is but have the audacity to know why you are
trying to make it be different, to imagine the way it could be.
Lesson 5: Balanced values can give clarity to out-sized goals
This goes back to audacity and humility. You’ve got to be
audacious enough to set goals that make you stretch and give you clarity of
vision and purpose. But you have to have the humility to know that this work is
hard, and that you might not get there. If you start off talking about all the
reasons that you’re not going to get there, you’re not going to get there. And
so it’s holding that balance of not being reckless, but also having a huge
element of fearlessness.
What are important lessons you’ve learned about company
culture and values?
Wednesday, December 05, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Integrity Dividend
“(Organisations) where employees strongly believed their
managers followed through on promises and demonstrated the values they preached
were substantially more profitable than those whose managers scored average or
lower.”
Tony Simons, Cornell University,
The Integrity Dividend
Tuesday, December 04, 2012
Positive Leadership: Challenge and Opportunity for Women
Monday, December 03, 2012
Positive Leadership: Building a Personal Brand
If you’re working harder than ever to build your business
and still not making money, it may be because you’re trying to be someone you
are not.
Try instead to be — and to brand — yourself.
Premium brands, such as Christian Louboutin with his
signature red-lacquered-sole shoes, can charge so much more for their products
because of branding and the same is true for people. You want to be a celebrity in your field so that people are asking for you by
name. When you’re top of mind in your field, you get more referrals and it’s
much easier to bring in business through referrals than through advertising, cold
calling or submitting proposals.
How do you brand
yourself?
Begin within. You have to start by understanding who you are
before you can build a brand. Focus on the PITs — passions, interests and
talents — that make you who you are. Take your examination all the way back to
childhood and don’t forget to look at your personality, because it doesn’t
change. Ask “What’s your red sole?” Thanks to a recent court
decision, Christian Louboutin has an enforceable trademark on red-soled shoes.
With a few exceptions, he is the only one who can sell red-soled shoes. You
need to pinpoint what is unique about you — not something that applies only to
a few other people, but something that applies only to you. For most of us,
this is only going to be one or two specific things.
Own your name. Buy your space on the Internet —
www.YourName.com — and work at making yourself the first full page of results
that come up in a Google search of your name by blogging and engaging on a
variety of social media networks. You also want to put pictures out there
tagged with your name so that you have a full page of image results. Don’t
forget to set up Google alerts for your name and its various misspellings, so
you always know what people are saying about you.
Create your look. You need a consistent appearance for
yourself and look for your brand. Think about colours, logos and fonts — and
don’t forget to get a great head shot.
Post valuable content. Write blog posts and use social media
to pass along useful content that relates to your brand. Be sure to tag
everything with your name, so it all leads back to you.
Start something — something big. When you create something that’s
valuable to people, you open the door to making real connections with them.
Speak in public. If you’re unsure or inexperienced, just
start practicing.
Fire clients. The easiest and quickest way for you to
create a breakthrough in your lifestyle is to fire those clients (or customers,
or products, or product lines, or revenue streams or service offerings) that
don’t produce. You can’t serve everyone, and you don’t want
to be wasting your time on work that doesn’t pay off.
Raise prices. Yes, you’ll lose clients by raising prices,
but you’ll have to work less to make the same amount of money, so you’ll be a
winner. There are a variety of ways to raise prices, including bundling your
service instead of charging by the hour, charging more for fast or last-minute
service, and charging new clients more at the outset when you have the most
leverage.
Prepare for haters. When you set out to establish and
promote a strong brand, there will be haters, but there will be people who
love you more and they’re the ones who count. Surround
yourself with people who love and support you and who think you’re great!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Positive Leadership: Dealing With Problems
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Positive Leadership: Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are
Today, Cuddy is a professor and researcher at Harvard Business School, where she studies how nonverbal behaviour and snap judgments affect people from the classroom to the boardroom. And her training as a classical dancer (another skill she regained after her injury) is evident in her fascinating work on "power posing" -- how your body position influences others and even your own brain.
“Power
posing” -- standing in a posture of confidence, even when we don’t feel
confident -- can affect testosterone and cortisol levels in the brain, and
might even have an impact on our chances for success.
Amy Cuddy’s research on body language reveals that we can
change other people’s perceptions — and even our own body chemistry — simply by
changing body positions.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Positive Leadership: What to look for in a CV
"A high school dropout who's done a lot is better than a Stanford PhD who has done a similar amount, because he's driven further" with fewer credentials, says Khosla. He does think schooling really helped him, but mostly because he explored different disciplines rather than sticking with the same field.
An interesting sit-down with an interesting man that quickly skates on to other topics.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Positive Leadership: Leading through Stories
Gavin Esler, one of Britain's leading journalists and
interviewers reveals what the stories that leaders tell can teach us about
getting to the top - and staying there.
Great leaders have always understood the power of stories.
Through the stories they tell, the most successful leaders educate, persuade
and bring about change, but we rarely have the background knowledge to explore
how they do so
Introducing the questions every leader must answer - and the
elements that the best stories must contain - Esler explains how creating a
leadership story can promote success at all levels, whether running for the
United States presidency, or applying for a place at university.
Friday, November 23, 2012
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Positive Leadership: Authenticity, Generosity, and Passion in Leadership
In her keynote at Womensphere’s Global Summit 2010, Shelly reflects upon what defines a great leader, and shares her insights from countless encounters with leaders of different styles and personalities.
Authenticity, Generosity, and Passion in Leadership - Shelly Lazarus from Womensphere on Vimeo.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Positive Leadership: Optimising the Return from Change
If you are either announcing a change, or receiving direction
on change, here are ten key questions that need to be clearly addressed:
1. What is the change?
2. What business issue(s) is (/are) driving this change?
3. Why should we care?
4. How will this change help address these issues?
5. What alternatives were considered? What were the pros and
cons of each alternative?
6. Why must this change succeed?
7. Where does this change fit with other organisational
priorities?
8. How will people emotionally respond to this change, and
how should we acknowledge their feelings (the good or bad)?
9. What is the first action we need to take?
10. What are the milestones we will use to measure progress?
Take the time upfront to answer or get answers to these
questions and you should see a significant return on your time invested.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Positive Leadership: When Leaders Do Harm
Bad bosses don’t wake up in the morning and ask themselves:
“How can I derail the corporate strategy today?”
Thunderbird research, based on
surveys and interviews with more than 250 managers in 37 countries, shows that
most ineffective leaders remain blissfully unaware of the harm they do to their
organisations. Only 35% of respondents at high-performing companies said their
leaders were doing a good job inspiring their teams to participate in strategic
initiatives.
In this video, Thunderbird School of Global Management Professors Kannan
Ramaswamy and Bill Youngdahl talk about the "hindrance trap" that catches
many leaders.
For more, see:
Monday, November 19, 2012
Positive Leadership: Energising a Firm with Mission and Values
Here he talks about energising a firm with mission & values.
A very interesting approach, albeit one which might be difficult to implement in some cultures!
Friday, November 16, 2012
Positive Leadership: The Value of Consultants
DaVita CEO Kent Thiry discusses how being a consultant
prepares you—or doesn't—for being a leader. Thiry spoke at
the Stanford Graduate School of Business' View from the Top series.
Watch the full talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_d5jnCpqU&feature=plcp
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Positive Leadership: Relationships
Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
Monday, November 12, 2012
Positive Leadership: Staying Motivated: Advice form Peyton Manning
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)