Communication

… How Do I Respond?   Recently, I came across a short essay by one of my favorite leadership writers, Paul Axtell.  Axtell is an author of several books, including Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations,1 and a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review blogs. The piece that caught my attention is “How to […]

… Others Most Certainly Are   Some 150 years ago, Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”     What Emerson was saying is that the way you show up, your presence, can so over power what you say that your words have little […]

“True wisdom comes from asking the right questions.”            Clayton Christensen   Two weeks ago, the Tuesday Reading focused on some particularly insightful remarks made by a number of this year’s commencement speakers. Now, whenever you select a very small number of speakers, in this case only nine, from a very large […]

… How do I respond?   Compliments are a good thing, right? Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done. Especially from someone whose work you admire. They are a special form of positive feedback. However, many of us find accepting a compliment with grace to be a major challenge. Too often, our […]

Daniela Aivazian is the author of today’s Tuesday Reading.  She is an Organizational Effectiveness Specialist in Stanford University’s University IT organization.  Her essay first appeared as a leadership program reflection earlier this year.  [Dani may be reached at [email protected].]   In my second IT Leaders workshop, my coach said something that stopped me in my tracks. “Words matter,” […]

The MOR Leaders Program employs a leadership model which calls for leaders to focus on providing direction – establishing vision, developing strategies, and coping with change; aligning people – communicating direction, engaging people in implementation, and building commitment; and motivating them to do the work – “holding up the banner,” coaching and empowering, and recognizing and rewarding success. This […]

. . .  Ask for it! On any given day we will each need help from others in one or more of our life-circles – our work, our families, our church, and our social and community activities, etc.  And, we also will have opportunities to extend our help to others.  So, why then, do we […]

… men and women can both be “victims” and “perpetrators”   Turn on the radio or television, read a magazine or newspaper, surf the web.  You’ll likely hear or see a story about sexual harassment or assault or mischief on the part of someone in power – a broadcast personage, a media executive, a politician, […]

… conjunction (joining two words, phrases, or clauses) as in   “Rachel plays the piano and sings.”  (macmillandictionary.com) Eric McNulty, director of research at the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, notes that over the years words like “paradigm shift,” “synergy,” “sustainability,” “resilience,” “agile,” “lean,” as well as others have come onto the stage, and often inform new […]

…  You May Want To Give IT a Try Kristin Wong, a Los Angeles journalist and writer, who contributes to the New York Times and other publications, found herself approached by a stranger at a grocery store asking if she needed help.  He had heard her talking to herself out loud, in public.  She had […]

At least with my family, preparation for Thanksgiving dinner began several weeks ago as decisions were made about where we would gather and who would prepare and bring what food to share.  It’s always a wonderful time to get as many family members as can come together to express our thanks for another year and […]

Then, Ask for It! Over the past years I’ve written a number of Tuesday Readings about feedback.  (See here and here for example.)  In this set of readings, I explored both why and how we should give and receive feedback as well other aspects of the subject.  And, I have particularly encouraged leaders to give feedback to their staff […]

Ingredients:  A challenging topic, participants, rules and processes for conducting the conversation, (if the number of participants is large), and a “container.” Today, we live in an age where the “art” and “practice” of having a conversation, a discourse, on a challenging, perhaps very complicated and controversial, subject has become dim.  We don’t take the time for face-to-face interactions on either […]

The need for peace and quiet Last week’s Tuesday Reading, Our Busy, Busy, Busy Brains!, focused on how our brains are daily assaulted by sounds from our smart devices, from the arrival of email, tweets, and Facebook posts, from music we might be playing, from sounds within our workspace, from traffic outside our buildings, etc.  Even at night, when […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading, It Began with Curiosity, is an essay by Jill Purdy, Director of Finance at the University of Nebraska-Kearney.  [She may be reached at [email protected].]Her essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year. When my father had a heart attack five years ago, he was flown to Sanford Heart Institute in Sioux […]

Almost every time I travel from Cambridge to Boston, I cross the Longfellow Bridge.  The central piers of the bridge feature four carved, ornamental stone towers, which give rise to another name for the bridge, the “Salt and Pepper Bridge,” which many of us still use.  Originally opening in 1906, the bridge replaced previous bridges and […]

Over that past two years, the Tuesday Reading has focused twice on difficult conversations, both with others, Managing Difficult Conversations, and in the form of self-talk, Neuroscience – Managing Self-Talk.  Last week we turned again to Difficult Conversations and today, we return to the topic of self-talk.   Last fall when I wrote about self-talk, I quoted […]

Over that past two years, the Tuesday Reading has focused twice on difficult conversations, both with others, Managing Difficult Conversations, and in the form of self-talk, Neuroscience – Managing Self-Talk.      Recently, I reviewed an essay We Have to Talk:  A Step-By-Step Checklist for Difficult Conversations, by Judy Ringer, a conflict and communications skills trainer, black belt in […]

Before the winter break, I spent some time considering who would make a great example of leadership for my reflection. I kept coming back to the idea of describing my friend David, who was once a colleague of mine at another university. Over the years, we’ve kept in touch on a regular basis, and kept […]

There are informal leaders in every organization.  These are the people in the organization who, without formal title or authority, get things done, and done well, show others how to do them, and have a large network interconnecting many people in a variety of teams and organizations across the entire organization.  Often we do not […]