The Persistence of Vision @ LeadershipNow I Think, Therefore I See Biologists tells us that the eye does not function to replicate the world we come into contact with, but instead to sense, process and encode the motion, patterns and colors of the light we see into something our minds will interpret. Our minds interpret the data given to us by our eyes in connection with all of the other organs that respond to our environment. It combines this new data with similar information it has already stored in our memories. As a result, no two people see anything exactly alike. Now the default setting that our mind comes with, operates in much the same way. Call it a persistence of thought. Just as what we see is governed by what we think, so what we perceive as real—our feelings, thoughts and assumptions—is based on what we think is real. Our mind is constantly trying to make sense of our world. Self-validating Illusions Additionally, it can cause us to be rigid and un-teachable thus impeding our growth and the growth of others. U.S.
Six tactics of natural leaders In this week's Leadership Blog, our coach John M McKee shares six tactics you can use to move up the ladder more quickly. Ever notice that some people seem to be "natural leaders"? For them, leadership is like wearing clothes that were custom-made. But most people struggle with the role of leader. Natural leaders share a secret: They recognize that they need to adjust every time they get new assignments or additional responsibilities. Here are six tactics you can use to improve your career success while building a reputation as a "natural leader": 1. Here's to your future! John Executive leadership coach
Please, Make a Decision Over lunch, Jacob and Marilyn discussed some of the frustrations they were experiencing on one of their current projects. Jacob was a business analyst on the project and Marilyn was the subject matter expert. Jacob turned to Marilyn and said to her, “If you could say just one thing to Tom our project manager, what would it be?” Without hesitation Marilyn replied, “Please, make a decision.” Unfortunately Jacob and Marilyn both viewed Tom as wishy-washy. When the project was just beginning, team members would ask for clarification with regard to who should help with certain parts of the project or whether or not they should work overtime if they were late with a deliverable or what to do if they had a conflict between this project and their other assignments. Eventually the team stopped asking Tom questions that required any type of decision making. By not exhibiting decision making skills, Tom lost control of the team. The team needed to see Tom make decisions.
For Great Leadership, Clear Your Head - Joshua Ehrlich by Joshua Ehrlich | 10:17 AM September 14, 2011 Getting stuff done is overrated. Knowing where you are going and how to get there — strategy — is everything. But many managers still spend too much time doing and not enough time thinking. Your first challenge is learning how to stop the action. But focusing and thinking about the big picture are not as simple as blocking out time and turning off your devices. I once coached an executive who was a high potential on the fast track, with tremendous charisma, drive, and analytical skills. Remove the obstacles. Quiet the noise. Percolate. Clarify your message. Keep reflecting and adjusting. Staying focused on the big picture in your business is no easy task, but increased mindfulness and reflection can help you to convey and execute your leadership strategy.
Leadership and Change Research Bloomberg news anchor Betty Liu, author of 'Work Smarts: What CEOs Say You Need to Know to Get Ahead,' shares what she learned about career success from speaking with CEOs[…] Good Managers Lead Through a Team - Linda Hill & Kent Lineback We consider the ability to manage a team so important that, in a recent book, we made it one of the “3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader:” Manage Your Team — the first imperative — is about creating a real team and managing through it. For the record, the other two imperatives are Manage Yourself — which is about building relationships based on trust, not authority — and Manage Your Network, which is about connecting and collaborating with those you don’t control. “Manage your team” might seem clear and straightforward. Yet when we talk about it, we often find it’s not an intuitive concept for many managers and for some it even cuts against the grain of what they think they should do as bosses. Perhaps the easiest way to explain the problem, as we’ve come to understand it, is through the phrase we used above — manage “through the team.” Every group is not a team. Teams are more productive and innovative than mere work groups. A mutual sense of purpose.
13 ways to tell if you’re a “bully” project manager | Ward Wired Your next project manager? Are you a bully? Do you bully your teammates, vendors and weaker stakeholders? Most bullies don't even know that they are one. Well, to find out, see if the 13 statements below describe you. By the way, I recall on a trip to Australia that my colleague there said that “bullying” is actually against the law which I found very interesting. zp8497586rq
Want to succeed in IT? Five tips from the top How to reach the very top of the IT profession may remain a closed book to most technologists, but leading CIO Paul Coby has some simple advice on the best way to get there. So, you want to be a top CIO? Sounds like a reasonable career aim, but how do you climb the greasy pole and reach the highest echelons of IT leadership? If you want best-practice career advice, it makes sense to listen to people who have already excelled - and are continuing to excel - in the technology chief position. Coby spent a decade as group CIO of the airline, a role he prefaced with 17 years at the forefront of the UK public sector. 1. Coby's experiences have led him to develop a simple maxim: "There are no IT projects, just business projects." Coby concedes he has become well known for this mantra: "That phrase resonates," he says. The explanation for the strength of that response is simple: success in modern IT is all about using technology to support new business opportunities. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Why Leadership Means Listening Today's employees want to be asked for feedback and they want to be heard. Here are four tips to help you become a better listener Over the past several weeks, I interviewed a half-dozen well-known business leaders for a new book on communications. One theme came up repeatedly—great leaders are great listeners. The differences they found were striking. 1. The other week I asked a newspaper reporter who he considered the most inspiring person he had ever met. This reporter meets plenty of famous people, yet Clinton made an impression on him because in Clinton he found someone who seemed to show a genuine interest in what he was saying. When you speak to someone, maintain eye contact with that person. 2. Great listeners ask questions in response to a question asked of them. Just as eye contact makes people feel important, asking questions makes them feel as though their opinions count. 3. 4. Goldsmith calls listening the one skill that separates the great from the near-great.
Changing Your Culture by Bringing Humanity to the Workplace Managers, from the senior level down to the front line leaders, often have the misconception that to manage effectively, neither they nor their employees can actually show their human side at work. These managers believe that to allow personality, humor and humility gives away too much of their power, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Maybe back in the command and control era of management, when employees clocked in and clocked out and were expected to repeatedly perform routine tasks, this type of emotionless management style may have worked. But the workplace is different now. Today, we call on every employee to use their creativity and innovation to help companies compete on a global level. Employees must know that they can suggest new ideas without those ideas being immediately shot down. It’s a common belief that money is the great motivator. Kelleher injected humor and fun into the workplace in his own way, which included dressing in drag and dressing like Elvis.
Six behaviors that could come back to bite you | Ward Wired As project managers we want our team members to have a commitment to deadlines, be optimistic about their work, stay focused on the goal, have a competitive mindset, stick to the budget, and please clients and management don’t we? And yet, these 6 behaviors, which most of us would readily agree are important, can precede a scandal, cause morale problems, and sink projects. In an interesting blog post David Gelber, author of The 3 Power Values provides some pertinent examples of disastrous business results from being obsessive about these behaviors. They intrigued me so I decided to write about them in a project management context. See what you think. Commitment to deadlines—While this is at the core of successful project management, when the schedule becomes sacrosanct and we do everything in our power to meet it, we create more problems than their worth. Excessive Optimism—Optimism can be a powerful influencer on projects.