Many leaders pride themselves on having an open door policy. Yet somehow employees still are reluctant to stop in. Leaders become puzzled when their open door policies don’t improve communication or employee engagement. To accomplish those goals, an open door is not enough – leaders need to adopt open mind policies. An open mind policy …
Read more “Forget the door; Try an open-mind policy instead”
There are a lot of great leadership books. Here are some that might not make the mainstream lists but that have critical messages for leaders. If you are looking to think about leadership from a slightly different perspective, these might be for you: Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace …
It seems that the war on thinking has a new weapon: iteration. People drive forward half-baked ideas and plans under the guise of taking an “iterative” approach. I’m all for iteration. I’ve been able to implement better solutions faster by taking an iterative approach. Iteration allows you to get feedback sooner, manage resources better, and …
I was recently helping my daughter with her Math homework. She had the following problem. There are 320 rods in a mile. How much of a mile is one rod?How much of a mile are forty rods?How much of a mile are sixty rods? Can you solve it? Wait, there’s the catch – you can’t …
Leadership and data. Two of my passions. Of course, my bigger passion is helping leaders be more effective at using data. One of the biggest obstacles that many leaders face is not understanding the tools that are available to them. I’ve seen a lot of people waste a lot of time manually performing tasks that …
Read more “Special Sneak Preview: Five Excel Functions That Every Manager Should Know”
Progress. Moving forward. Execution. That’s what business is about. Disagree with someone’s idea or recommendation? Just argue that the idea might slow down progress. It will be killed before the person can respond. In many organizations most people are afraid to be the one to stop the train. Progress and execution are good as long …
Leaders don’t accomplish things on their own. They achieve results through other people. The on-going success of an organization depends on two key factors: achieving immediate goals and 2) long term sustainability. For a leader this translates into fostering individual contribution and personal growth among his or her people. Leaders who focus solely on individual …
The April 14, 2008 issue of Time Magazine has two brief articles that reference innovation. The first is about the current financial crisis: “Holding Back the Flood: More financial regulation will mean less financial innovation. Maybe that’s not such a bad idea.” The second is about people who are working toward peace and social change: …
Read more “Innovation doesn’t create risk, people do (although they can alleviate risk too)”
Good leaders are good coaches. Coaches don’t just provide answers. They help people grow and develop while contributing to the organization. This article provides some tips and tricks for being a more effective coach. You have three main roles as a coach: Diagnosis: determining when/where people may need help Creating Awareness: helping people see that …
Daniel Pink’s book, A Whole New Mind, lists the new “senses” required to thrive in our new, “conceptual” age. The six new senses are design, story, symphony, empathy, play and meaning. Many of these are in direct contrast to what we’ve heard and seen as leaders for the past several decades. So, where can we …