Emotional Intelligence

Today’s Tuesday Reading, Asking Good Questions, continues the series begun last week.  There we noted that asking good questions is as important as listening well.  After all, a major part of a leader’s job is initiating and building relationships, collaborating to craft a vision and strategies, developing an understanding of the work and desired results, […]

Last week Mary Jordan’s post on the Linkage Leadership Blog showed up in my Inbox.  She is a Principle Consultant and Co-Leader of the Change and Transition Leadership Practice at Linkage, an international consulting practice focusing on developing organizations. We have all heard this admonition to “be still” at various times in our lives.  Usually, at […]

Last week I was attracted to a short piece [1] on networking by Marc Thompson.  Thompson is an author, leadership coach, and investor.  The article’s title, “Why Jeff Bezos, Tony Hsieh and Al Gore Told Me to Stop Networking,” was what caught my eye.  Thompson notes at the beginning of the piece that the typical advice […]

“Humble listening” is among the top four characteristics of leaders.     – Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO, GE “If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.”     – Henry Ford “To be able […]

For the past three weeks, the Tuesday Readings have focused on one or another facet of employee engagement.  Today, we shift the focus a bit and turn our attention to “Employee Morale.”  Our author is Vi Bergquist, CIO at St Cloud Technical & community college.  Vi’s essay was a recent weekly reflection in one of […]

The past two Tuesday Readings have focused on employee engagement, first, on February 10, 2015, focusing on what employee engagement is and then on February 17, turning to a set of five expectations that employees have of their supervisors.  The data shows that if these expectations are met, engagement will increase.  And, that’s a good thing.  […]

We all encounter tough conversations almost daily.  Today’s Tuesday Reading, How to Override Your Default Reactions in Tough Moments, provides some oft-needed help.  The essay is by Lee Newman, Dean of Innovation and Behavior and a professor of Behavioral Science and Leadership at IE Business School in Madrid, and appeared earlier this year on the HBR Blog Network. […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is actually a short video “’Stop winning so much.’ What?” by Marshall Goldsmith.  Goldsmith is a widely known author – What Got You Hear, Won’t Get You There – and executive coach. He begins this video by recalling a lesson he learned from Peter Drucker, perhaps the world’s authority on management.  In one of their conversations, […]

All of us want to expand the breadth of our networks and build stronger relationships.  Today’s Tuesday Reading, “6 Steps to Turn Strangers into Connections“ which appeared in FastCompany, gives us some helpful suggestions to do just that.  The essay’s author is Stephanie Vozza who writes about business and time management and is the author of The […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is “Mood And Engagement Are Contagious” and first appeared in Joe Folkman’s Forbes column.  Folkman describes himself as “a behavioral statistician who covers evidence-based improvement.”  More conventionally, he is co-founder and president of Zenger-Folkman, a consulting firm that works to improve organizations and the people within them.   There’s not a one […]

The Tuesday Reading for today is “How to Make Stress Your Friend,” a presentation Kelly McGonigal made at TED Global 2013.  (A transcript of the presentation can be found on the talk’s website. McGonigal is a Stanford University psychologist and a leader in the growing field of “science help” which helps us understand and implement the latest […]

The Tuesday Reading today is “What to do in your last 30 days,” an essay written by Helen Norris, 2007 ITLP alum, and until recently Associate CIO at California State University, Sacramento.  As of yesterday (June 2, 2014), Helen became CIO of Chapman University in Orange, California.  In a note to me, she said that […]

This week’s Tuesday Reading is The Dangers of Denial,  an essay by Ron Ashkenas, managing partner of Schaffer Consulting and co-author of The GE Work-Out and The Boundaryless Organization. The essay first appeared as a posting on the HBR Blog Network.Ashkenas notes that great leaders tell it like it is, focusing on reality no matter how […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is “4 Habits of the Most Resilient People” and is an excerpt from Ready to be a Thought Leader? by Denise Brosseau.  Brosseau is founder and CEO of Thought Leadership Lab.  She has an MBA from Stanford and in 2012 she has honored by the White House as a “Champion of Change.” It’s a […]

  The Tuesday Reading this week is Lessons in Leadership: How Lincoln Became America’s Greatest President, an essay by Hitendra Wadhwa, Professor of Professional Practice in the Faculty of Business at Columbia University.  This essay appeared on Inc.com earlier this year. In his essay Professor Wadhwa examines how Lincoln developed the self-discipline to take one of his […]

Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy Today’s reading is Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy,  an essay by Christine M. Riordan, Provost at the University of Kentucky and an expert in leadership development and workplace diversity.  The essay appeared on the HBR Blog Network. Riordan observes that “The ability and willingness to listen […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading, The Laws of Simplicity, is drawn from John Maeda’s book by the same title, and the associated website.  Maeda is President of the Rhode Island School of Design.  He is an artist, designer, and technologist.  Before going to RISD in 2008, he was a professor and associate director of research at MIT’s Media […]

Today’s Tuesday Readng, “Three Leadership Lessons from Sochi:  Practice, Practice, Practice,” appeared in the strategy+business blog.  It comes from the pen of Eric J. McNulty, director of research at the National Preparedness Leadership Institute. No one excels without lots of practice.  Most athletes at the 2014 Olympics have been practicing hours almost every day for […]

The Tuesday Reading today is an essay “How Interactive Media Can Scramble Your Brain” by James O’Toole that appeared earlier this past fall in strategy+business.  O’Toole is a senior fellow in business ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics and the author of 17 books including The Executive’s Compass. Some, certainly, and perhaps many, of […]

This week’s Tuesday Reading “Real Influence,” from the title of Mark Goulston and John Ullmen’s book “Real Influence:  Persuade Without Pushing and Gain Without Giving In,” is a continuation of the reading begun last week.  Goulston is a business psychiatrist, executive coach and cofounder of Heartfelt Leadership.  Ullmen oversees the website MotivationRules.com and teaches at […]