HR News » Leadership News http://hrbloggers.com Blogs, News, and Information for the Human Resources Community | www.HRbloggers.com Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:59:38 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Getting Ideas to Flow http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/getting_ideas_to_flow.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/getting_ideas_to_flow.html#comments Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:16:53 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/getting_ideas_to_flow.html Comedia, and works to help cities to be more "creative for the world" so that the energies of individuals and companies can be brought into alignment with their global responsibilities. He recently told Sally Helgesen that his experience has taught him that “the single biggest problem in the world is not finding great ideas but getting great ideas to move, to flow.”

flow
Getting stuck is an issue we face both individually and organizationally. At its core, it’s a thinking problem and is often self-inflicted. Creating the right kind of movement and in the right direction begins with re-thinking our view of reality. If we keep applying the same patterns of thinking even after they have been shown to be counterproductive we skew our perception of even everyday life situations and block the flow of growth, ideas and influence. Here are some common areas we need to rethink to get ideas to flow:

Re-think complexity. We create complexity by over-analyzing our situation; creating issues where there are none; forgetting our purpose. Complexity obscures the issues. Keep the issues as uncluttered as possible. Often an outsider can see the situation and the real issues more clearly than you can. Try asking, “Am I making this a bigger problem than it is because of fear, insecurity or lack of knowledge?” “Is this really a problem to be solved or a tension to be managed?” Stick to what needs to be addressed. Complexity can lead to procrastination.

Re-think systems. Trying to create a new vision without addressing old systems is at best counterproductive. Tenaciously grasping the old ways of doing things just because that is what you have always done, can stop the flow of ideas and innovative solutions and lead to hopelessness. If you are experiencing a chronic lack of movement, a resistance to change or lack of compliance to your “really good idea,” you probably have a system in place that discourages the very behavior you seek. A system should reward the behavior you want. What systems are getting in your way?

Re-think ego. Our ego frequently keeps us from exploring new ideas. We get so invested in what we have done that we can’t get out of our own way. We keep retrying to work the old and deceive ourselves into thinking we’re making progress when all we are doing is rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship. Sometime we need to set aside our ego and simply abandon what isn’t working and start over with a better design.

Re-think boundaries. Think bigger. Think interdisciplinary. Growth often involves blurring boundaries to open your mind to new possibilities. What principles outside of your world of experience could expand the possibilities for your idea?

Re-think reactions. Repetitive reactions are the result of ingrained patterns of thinking that we have hard-wired into our brains long ago. Take the time to reflect on why you think the way you do; why you do what you do. Default patterns of thinking lead to more of the same. Ask yourself, “Is this working for me?” Think about the unspoken.

Re-think failure. If you’re afraid of being wrong, embarrassed by failure or paralyzed by insecurity, you will never find the solutions that lead to meaningful growth. Failure provides the nutrients for growth when we respond to them positively. Keep failure in perspective, it’s a regular part of life. You can’t avoid them so learn to work with them. Failures help you to raise the bar and reorient your thinking to possibilities and new ways of thinking.

Re-think success. Know what success looks like. How will you know when you have arrived? Muddy expectations lead to exhaustion and defeat before you even get started. Praise short-term accomplishments to appeal to your heart and not just your head. It will keep your ideas moving along.]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/getting_ideas_to_flow.html/feed 0 5 Leadership Lessons: Lessons From Warren Buffett’s Top Business Leaders http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/5_leadership_lessons_lessons_f.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/5_leadership_lessons_lessons_f.html#comments Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:12:58 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/5_leadership_lessons_lessons_f.html 5 Leadership LessonsIn Behind the Berkshire Hathaway Curtain, Ron Chan has interviewed a number of CEOs and executives who have contributed to Berkshire’s Success. Here are some of the insights, philosophies an mindsets from people at the top of their fields:

  Cathy Baron-Tamraz, President and CEO of Business Wire: “I think a liberal arts education is invaluable in preparing one for the working world. I look at the people I have hired these past 30 years, and to be candid, most of them have had a more general background than a strictly business background.” The whole idea of college is to learn about general principles by taking a variety of courses.

  Randy Watson, President and CEO of Justin Brands: “I learned that to run a company and be a leader, it is not about the individual, but how the team of people work together to accomplish something for the greater good. It is about working in unison. My job is to make sure that I have the right people in the right place, and then I stay out of their way.”

  Stanford Lipsey, Publisher of the Buffalo News: “As an advertising executive, I learned to be observant and flexible. I learned to pick up information from my clients so that I could prepare data to attract them. As the saying goes, ‘persistence succeeds when all else fails!’ I just kept trying and trying.”

  Brad Kinstler, President and CEO of See’s Candies: “Spotting talent is more of an art than a science. You’ll never know whether you have an eye for it until you put your managers out in the playing field and observe the way they perform. What I realized is that there is no right or wrong when it comes to picking talent. In fact, you can’t even tell who will be the next leader until he or she becomes one. Leaders come in different shapes and sizes, and it is often during a crisis or other extraordinary situation that their true ability emerges.”

  David Sokol, Chairman of the Board of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company: “When I was a 27-year-pld project manager, I had to lead some older and more experienced managers. The reality was that some of them were uncomfortable working with me. The only thing I could do was to keep my head down, check my ego at the door, and work extremely hard to prove that I was capable of leading. I didn’t try to convince them of anything other than the need to accomplish everything as a team.

“My father taught me that it is difficult to control others’ perceptions, but I can always control my own actions, and these actions can, over time, alter those perceptions. I constantly show my colleagues that I am an active listener, and I make sure to explain my rationale for every decision and to consider their opinions. That is all I can do, because the reality is that it will soon become clear whether or not I am capable.”]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/5_leadership_lessons_lessons_f.html/feed 0 First Look: Leadership Books for September 2010 http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/first_look_leadership_books_fo_18.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/first_look_leadership_books_fo_18.html#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:58:25 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/first_look_leadership_books_fo_18.html September.

  Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best ... And Learn from the Worst by Robert I. Sutton
  Power: Why Some People Have It—and Others Don't by Jeffrey Pfeffer
  Management? It's Not What You Think! by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel
  Reality-Based Leadership: Ditch the Drama, Restore Sanity to the Workplace, and Turn Excuses into Results by Cy Wakeman
  Defy Gravity: Propel Your Business to High-Velocity Growth by Rebel Brown

Good Boss, Bad Boss Power Management Reality-Based Leadership Defy Gravity

For bulk orders call 1-800-423-8273

"An ordinary man can … surround himself with two thousand books … and thenceforward have at least one place in the world in which it is possible to be happy."
—Augustine Birrell (1850-1933)


discounted books
Build your leadership library with these specials on over 160 titles. All titles are at least 40% off the list price and are available only in limited quantities.]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/09/first_look_leadership_books_fo_18.html/feed 0 LeadershipNow 140: August 2010 Compilation http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/leadershipnow_140_august_2010.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/leadershipnow_140_august_2010.html#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:40:33 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/leadershipnow_140_august_2010.html twitter
twitter Here are a selection of tweets from August 2010: ]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/leadershipnow_140_august_2010.html/feed 0 Why Amish Businesses Thrive http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/why_amish_businesses_thrive.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/why_amish_businesses_thrive.html#comments Tue, 31 Aug 2010 06:23:13 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/why_amish_businesses_thrive.html LeadershipStatistically, Amish businesses have a survival rate that is almost double other American businesses. Erik Wesner decided to find out why. After years of research and interviews, he has gathered together in Success Made Simple a number of transferable lessons on operating a business. I think it is a critical insight to their success that they don’t get the cart before the horse. Wesner writes, “Amish tend to keep in mind that business is first a means to realize core values, ones which don’t usually come to mind when thinking ‘business prosperity.’”

Jonas Lapp (not his real name) is an Amish home-builder. Wesner says that “Jonas loves what he does. But you can see that it’s less the actual construction of homes or the financial payoff that drive him. Instead, it’s the chance to be a father figure to an employee who never had one, to form a friendship with a ‘customer’ who in the end never even does business with him, to do his small part to strengthen ties in his community.”

In the beginning when he first started his business, Jonas struggled with fear; the fear of it not working out; of failure. The problem with fear Jonas told Wesner, is that when you are operating out of fear, “you’re not establishing relationships. You’re in it for what you can grab today. You’re after as much as you can get.”

Not surprisingly, what grounds Jonas is his faith, operating from the premise that God will take care of him. “Amish lean on faith,” writes Wesner. “It’s a seemingly bottomless source of strength and security. Faith helps them see hope when tragedy strikes. Faith fosters gratitude in the fortunate. It’s a basic element of Amish life and, by extension, their approach to business.” It changes his perception of his role in the business and how it all relates to his life in general.

Jonas neutralizes fear by shifting his focus. “If you’re a servant-leader, that means other people are gonna come first,” he explains. “People have to be very important to you. You’re not in it for the dollar anymore … you’re in it to help people. And the profits? They come.” Wesner adds, "He executes in the day-to-day, while the far-horizon focus frames each decision."

A big part of Amish business thinking that come through in everything is their family oriented approach. “Amish business thinking reflects community….In Amish America, the familial aspect comes preinstalled.” Employees are often regarded as extended family. “The Amish remember that their employee is usually a spouse to someone, and often a parent to a hefty handful—before being a worker.” Jonas Lapp says:
If they’re married … or he has a fiancée or a girlfriend, if that fellow’s important in your business, let their helpmate know, that your husband is doing a wonderful job, and he’s very important in my business.
Humility is practiced and demonstrated in their respect for others. If your goals are important enough for you to pitch in on the unpleasant tasks, then perhaps those goals will be important to your employees too. Again Lapp says, “I think a good boss won’t just stand there and say, ‘Hey, your piece belongs over there’; he’ll say, ‘I’ll help you put it there.’ I think people learn faster if you help them with their part.” Success Made Simple will help you rethink your approach toward business and people. It will encourage you to clarify your values and methodically apply them to everything you do.
Gratitude. Family focus. Looking out for the other guy. When it comes to business, the Amish haven’t reinvented the wheel. One thing Amish excel at is applying certain time-honored principles—hard work, treating people fairly, providing quality goods and services—consistently.
]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/why_amish_businesses_thrive.html/feed 0 5 Leadership Lessons: The Wisdom of Bees http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/5_leadership_lessons_the_wisdo.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/5_leadership_lessons_the_wisdo.html#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:41:15 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/5_leadership_lessons_the_wisdo.html 5 Leadership Lessons beeWhen talking about wisdom, bees often come up. Aristotle, Marcus Aurelius and Emerson all spoke about bees. And for good reason. They have a lot to teach us. Beekeeper, management consultant and professor, Michael O’Malley, has extracted 25 lessons for leaders in The Wisdom of Bees. Here are five:

  Protect the Future. Bees don’t focus exclusively on the most productive flower patches at any given time, and for good reason. Conditions change rapidly for bees and they can ill afford wide swings in pollen and nectar intake….When a lucrative vein of nectar is discovered, the entire colony doesn’t rush off to mine it no matter how enriching the short-term benefits. The colony has internalized a very important natural rule: someday the nectar in that location will stop flowing and they need to be prepared to rapidly reallocate resources to other productive sites. The best way to ensure that there will be a short run is to focus on the long run….As the bees clearly advise through their behavior, overexploiting a rich patch just because it is there is a death trap.

  Distribute Authority. With many thousands of employed workers, the queen couldn’t possibly direct all of the actions in the field from her command post.…While the queen is the generic heart and soul of the hive, she is by no means the only leader….Those closest to the information should make the relevant decision. Decentralization is one of the hallmarks of the honeybee colony. Foraging decisions, for example, are made by the foragers. The information doesn’t travel up to the queen and back again. If you are thinking of shifting greater power away from the organizational core and into the field, however, consider these facts first: 1) bees have clear objectives; 2) they are excellent communicators and are able to quickly take in and consolidate information—and transform that information into coordinated action; and 3) they are reliable workers that are very good at what they do. bee

  Order and Innovate Through Fuzzy Constants. Much of the activity of bees is calibrated to constants that allow them to find their way home. When an organization adopts and fastens itself to a few immutable principles, the system as a whole becomes more reliable. A degree of error in the form of initiative, original thinking, and experimentation can then be tolerated. Constants do not drive out originality; they make it possible.…Where several solutions exist in shifting, complex settings, organizations require the intrusion of some variability—but never to the point of disorder.

  Keep Your Balance. One of the principle ways that bees moderate extreme behaviors is through genetic diversity….This genetic diversity produces bees within the same hives that are differentially sensitive to environmental conditions. For example, bees keep the temperature of the hive relatively constant at about ninety-three degrees Fahrenheit….The bees heat the hive by contracting two sets of flight muscles and cool the hive by flapping their wings. However they don’t do this all at the same time….Fortunately, the bees differ in their sensitivity to temperature and alter their behavior at different times in response to climatic conditions….Managers should strive to hire capable people who, as a group, provide the team with a range of perspectives and worldviews. Otherwise organizations can become closed societies. In addition to making conscious effort to hire in a fair-minded way, take time to select people who are naturally inquisitive and who have varied interests.

  Prepare For Leadership Changes. A colony headed by a high-quality queen has a more robust worker population and greater honey yield. It matters a great deal who is at the top. Consequently, it is not surprising that the workers in the hive pay close attention to the queen’s ability to propagate and are sensitive to declines in her performance. The queen’s ability to lead is determined ultimately by the minions, a truth unfortunately lost in many organizations. Leadership depends on the consent of the people to follow. In the instance of bees, the voice of workers is loud and clear….If the honeybee teaches us anything, it is that organizations cannot survive without a leader and, therefore, the colony prevents costly voids in leadership by planning for successors in advance of the obvious need. Colonies die without their top bee; organizations become pathological sans leadership.

"As you look for ways to improve your organization,” says O’Malley, “it would not be outlandish to take a step back and ask yourself, What would a bee do?"]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/5_leadership_lessons_the_wisdo.html/feed 0 Dispute Catastrophic Thoughts http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/dispute_catastrophic_thoughts.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/dispute_catastrophic_thoughts.html#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:36:23 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/dispute_catastrophic_thoughts.html Leader to Leader that “every exemplary leader that I have met has what seems to be an unwarranted degree of optimism—and that helps generate the energy and commitment necessary to achieve results.”

Optimism says Bennis, “the sense that things generally work out well, creates tremendous confidence in oneself and in those around one.” Optimism helps leaders to be more resilient as they tend to believe in their capacity for self control and the ability to overcome obstacles that come their way. In short, I would say, optimism is finding perspective.

optimism
In The Optimism Advantage, Terry Paulson offers fifty truths for cultivating optimism beginning with “Life is Difficult.” (Perhaps not what you would expect from a book on optimism.) He writes, “If you want to be a true optimist, start by being a realist. Accept that life is difficult, and then get busy learning as much as you can about the challenges you face. Why? Because you’ve overcome problems in the past, you have every reason to believe that you’ve got what it takes to overcome whatever problems life deals you.”

One important place to begin is with our negative thoughts and feelings. Optimists dispute catastrophic thoughts, those “feelings that everything is wrong and that nothing is going to change.” Paulson says that “means you have to be ready to argue with some of your negative beliefs.” Optimism is “about facing and taking advantage of reality—even unsettling reality. Expecting unrealistic results may actually increase your dissatisfaction….To an optimist, it’s all about resilience and maximizing your results.”

Start with understanding what it is you’re saying to yourself that is causing a bigger problem in your thinking. Clarify it and then take a critical look at your beliefs and dispute them. Are they valid? Is there another way to look at this? Seek alternate explanations. Optimists ask, “Is there any less destructive way to look at this or explain what happened?” Look for causes that you can overcome and focus on what can be changed and then take action.]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/dispute_catastrophic_thoughts.html/feed 0 There’s No Such Thing As Mature Companies http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/theres_no_such_thing_as_mature.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/theres_no_such_thing_as_mature.html#comments Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:49:09 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/theres_no_such_thing_as_mature.html
London Business School professor Don Sull says that the secret to the fountain of youth is: “companies do not pass through life cycles, opportunities do. Most firms, particularly large organizations, oversee a diverse portfolio of opportunities that exist at different stages of the life cycle.”

Even one-hit-wonders can find hidden opportunities if they look hard enough. To view what you are doing through the lens of the business life cycle, tends to make you myopic and limits your thinking. A perspective that emphasizes the opportunity life cycle encourages agility and openness in your thinking.

Sull writes in The Upside of Turbulence, “There are no mature companies, only portfolios overloaded with mature opportunities. Organizations can avoid a corporate midlife crisis through portfolio agility—the ability to quickly and effectively shift resources, including cash, talent, and managerial attention, out of less promising units and into more attractive ones.”

“To achieve portfolio agility,” writes Sull, “leaders should view their organization as an array of opportunities at various stages in the life cycle, paying attention to promising opportunities. The trick then is to keep your opportunities in balance. To that end the following questions are helpful:
  • Can the mature opportunities fund all the start-up and scaling activities being undertaken?
  • Are there enough or too many early-stage start-ups?
  • Is a core business about to enter a period of decline?
While this is directed at organizations, how might you apply this to your own personal life path? How might you keep your personal portfolio in balance and relevant to your world?]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/theres_no_such_thing_as_mature.html/feed 0 IdeaSelling http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/ideaselling.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/ideaselling.html#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:52:45 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/ideaselling.html LeadershipIdeas don’t sell themselves. In fact the better and bolder they are, the more they need selling. Sam Harrison offers hundreds of tips to help you get your (creative) ideas sold and keep you centered in the process. IdeaSelling, says Harrison, is for “anybody who knows the pain and suffering of presenting an idea and having it slammed to the ground, picked over, or altered beyond recognition.”

Simply saying, “They just don’t get it” is playing the victim. It doesn’t help you get your idea sold. One of the first reminders he gives us is one that is easily forgotten in the moment: It’s not about you. He writes:
Decision makers aren’t interested in your pain.

They’re interested in their pain.

They want to know how your ideas will ease their pain. Solve their problem. Provide worry-free sleep.

Or maybe they want to know how the idea will make their lives fun and joyful. Make them prosperous. Make life easier.

The last thing they want to hear are your problems. The overtime you put into the idea. Your hassles along the way. Your sleepless nights and supreme sacrifices.

Don’t whine or complain during your pitch. Keep it positive.

Stay out of your problems. Stay in their solutions.
A few others:
  • If you can’t describe your concept without taking a breath, you probably haven’t nailed your theme.
  • Dig down. But use a spade, not a bulldozer.
  • Don’t build up clients only to let them down at the end with “Well, what do you think?” or “That’s it.”
]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/ideaselling.html/feed 0 Whatever Happens Is Normal http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/whatever_happens_is_normal.html http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/whatever_happens_is_normal.html#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:36:54 +0000 Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/whatever_happens_is_normal.html

Prepared Mind of a Leader
One of the most valuable ideas I’ve ever discovered in terms of creating calm in the midst of a storm, and helping me keep my head when those about me are losing theirs, is the idea that whatever happens is normal. Not that whatever happens is always desirable or even acceptable, but that it’s almost always normal. A simple example of that would be having a flight canceled because of bad weather. Now this might wreck your schedule and cause you to have to completely rethink your plans, but, as a very, very frequent flyer, let me assure you that canceled flights are normal indeed.

Because I see canceled flights as normal, I don’t go into a tailspin when it happens. I know what to do to either find an alternate way of getting there or, at the very least, minimize, the damage that may come from not getting where I wanted to be at the anticipated time. All around me I see people, some of whom are obviously seasoned travelers, going into complete state of panic and anger over what is really a very common occurrence. I wonder if they just haven’t been paying attention for the past 20 years.

This idea that “whatever happens is normal” is what separates those who handle change effectively from those who go ballistic at the slightest deviation from what they had expected. We’ve all seen both types. On the one hand are the people who, if you tell them that there’s been a change in plans, policy, schedule, the menu, or virtually everything else, will quite completely lose it. They will either sink into a fuming funk or launch into a screaming rant. Either way, they don’t do well when the plans change.

The other end of the spectrum are the people who, regardless of what kind of changes you throw at them, seem to handle problems almost effortlessly. These people tend to be among the most valuable in an organization. The value of a person with the ability to perform well under pressure cannot be overestimated in a world where constant pressure is the norm.

Adapted from Becoming a Category of One by Joe Calloway.]]> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2010/08/whatever_happens_is_normal.html/feed 0