Up the Organization Jossey-Bass has released a commemorative edition of Robert Townsend’s (1920-1998) leadership classic, Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits. Originally published in 1970, this candid and provocative book deserves to be re-read every year. Here's a sample of Townsend's straightforward and practical advice: On People: Why spend all that money and time on the selection of people when the people you’ve got are breaking down from under-use.
The Age of the Consumer-Innovator – The Magazine - MIT Sloan Management Review Recent research shows that consumers collectively generate massive amounts of product innovation. These findings are a wake-up call for both companies and consumers — and have significant implications for our understanding of new product development. It has long been assumed that companies develop new products for consumers, while consumers are passive recipients — merely buying and consuming what producers create. However, a multidecade effort by many researchers has shown that this traditional innovation paradigm is fundamentally flawed: Consumers themselves are a major source of product innovations.1 Who's the Best at Innovating Innovation? - Polly LaBarre by Polly LaBarre | 4:00 PM February 25, 2013 Most companies put innovation at the top of their agendas. But how many devote the energy and resources it takes to build innovation into the values, processes, and practices that rule everyday activity and behavior? Not many, as we argued when we launched the Innovating Innovation Challenge in October.
7 Essential Skills for Managing Change It’s a cliché, but change has always been the only constant. In recent times, the pace of change has accelerated greatly, and we all need to find ways to deal creatively with this fact of modern life. Leaders, in particular, need to face and manage change in a constructive way, but everyone who wants to be successful – in career, in relationships, in life – must learn how to see and manage change the way that successful ‘change leaders’ do. Such leaders are adaptable and creative in managing change in three key ways:
"8 Types of Leader Last week I talked to a former Harvard Business School professor about leadership. He said he he was surprised how little leadership appears on the business school curriculum. Sure, there’s one required leadership class first year, but it’s often not taken as seriously as the other subjects. It is sometimes perceived as a soft, fuzzy, even unteachable, skill. Yet, leadership is the single most important thing we can do. What Is Thought Leadership? 5 Steps To Get It Right What is thought leadership? Like most buzzwords, thought leadership is an often misused and misunderstood term. But what is it really? And why do you need to consider developing and publishing thought leadership. 2013 may finally be the year when content marketing becomes a mainstream discipline in marketing departments. Thought leadership is a key component of content marketing.
Task-oriented vs social-minded leaders Studies show that task-oriented leaders (aka micro-managers) tend to categorize workers as either 'productive' or 'non-productive' as a way of putting order to their perceptions of the working environment. In contrast, social-minded (aka transformational) leaders prefer to de-emphasize the differences between workers, preferring to focus on relationships between team members. Generally speaking, task-oriented managers are also less tolerant of change, give more suggestions, tend to be more critical - and more controlling - than social-minded leaders. Social minded leaders, living on the other end of the spectrum, are considerate of opinions, less defensive to contrary remarks, and value relationships. Leadership and the Art of Struggle: 5 Things You Can Do Struggle is a part of any human endeavor and leadership is no different. The problem is we view struggle as a negative. But struggle is how we grow. Without them we can’t reach our full potential as leaders.
4 Leadership Skills That Hobbies Help Build When Jean-Luc Robert, CEO of San Diego, Calif.-based Kyriba wants to blow off some steam, he straps on his skis and jumps out of a helicopter. Robert is an avid heli-skier and adventure sports enthusiast--hobbies he says help make him a better leader at his corporate finance technology company. Related: How to Have a Social Life as a Young Trep When executive coach Stacia Pierce works with business leaders, one of the first things she does is encourage them to find a hobby. What is the Difference Between Management and Leadership? - Management Lessons in Leadership A leadership guide featuring step-by-step how-tos, Wall Street Journal stories and video interviews with CEOs. Adapted from “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Management” by Alan Murray, published by Harper Business.
Best Practices: Can Trust Be Taught? By Neal Goodman, Ph.D., President, Global Dynamics, Inc. Afundamental impediment in human interactions is the lack of trust. According to Stephen M.R. Covey, author of bestseller “The Speed of Trust,” training programs to promote trust enhance performance and profitability. Covey explained that trust is the primary factor in selecting Forbes’ “100 Best Companies to Work For.” As much as 50 percent of the value in identifying these companies is based on trust. Welcome to Forbes What is leadership, anyway? Such a simple question, and yet it continues to vex popular consultants and lay people alike. I’ve now written several books on leadership for employee engagement, and yet it occurred to me that I never actually paused to define leadership. Let’s start with what leadership is not…
Thought Leaders Now Being Replaced By Feeling Leaders No matter what business you're in, the engine of innovation is really about being moved. That's what movements are made of -- the heartfelt, intrinsically motivated effort to get off of dead center and accomplish something meaningful. This is the crossroads all of us are standing at these days -- the intersection between this and that. What the newspaper industry is going through.