Influence

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 […]

Last week’s Tuesday Reading, Toxic Staff Members, provided a set of steps a leader might take if she or he has a toxic staff member.  In outline form the advice was: Face, not ignore, the situation. Collect specifics about the behavior. Be direct in your feedback. Develop, with him or her, an improvement plan. Be extremely […]

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 […]

What’s the difference? Someone asked the other day, “What do you think?” and I wondered, is this a time to coach or a time to mentor?  In our interactions everyday we may have the choice to adopt one approach over the other.  Yet we need to be able to make the distinction between coaching in […]

Yesterday was the 240th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This document announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with the Kingdom of Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, no longer under British rule, and instead in a […]

… at this year’s commencement exercises This year’s spring graduation season has come to an end.  About 4,700 degree granting public and private, two and four year institutions awarded some 2.8 million degrees at their commencement exercises.  And, every one of these gatherings had speakers that spoke of not giving into the darkness and despair of […]

Sue Workman, Vice President Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer, Case Western Reserve University, keynote video for the 2016 MOR Leaders Conference.  Video of Sue Workman, Case Western Reserve University, MOR Leaders Conference

Today’s Tuesday Reading, Who I think about as “My Leader,” is an essay by Paula Torres, Senior Educational Design Technologist, Global Learning and Innovation, NYU Information Technology.  Her essay first appeared as a program reflection last year. The one person I think of when I think of leadership was not my manager, supervisor, or even […]

You can find many lists of leadership competencies.  Some result from a careful examination of the work in a particular job family or from role descriptions.  Some come from discussions about what it takes to be a really good leader in a mid-level position at, say, an education institution.  Other lists are developed based on […]

The first in a series of case studies supporting our clients as they think about the process of engaging others to move ideas forward in their environment. Enjoy!  And thanks to Evan Silberman from NYU for partnering with us on this write up. NYU-Case-Study-Building-Leadership-Community.pdf  

mindset  ––  a habit or way of thinking that determines how you will interpret and respond to situations. Carol Dweck, the Lewis and Virginia Eaton Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, has focused her research on motivation, personality, and development for over three decades and is best known for her research on intelligence and how […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading, I Met A Leader Today, is an essay by Mary Fuller, originally written as a reflection early in the University of Nebraska on-campus leaders program.  Mary is a member of the Data Warehouse Team of the University of Nebraska Computing Services Network.   I left our first 2-day session of the MOR Leaders […]

Greetings, It’s a new year, a time of New Year’s resolutions which typically align with health and wellness.  We are coming off several weeks with family and friends which are blessed times and also times of higher stress levels.  As we begin to wrap up our first week of 2016, the Tuesday reading from November 3rd  came to […]

I am constantly looking for new leadership lessons. When I am a student or trainee, I observe how the instructor structures the class, presents information, and keeps the room engaged. As a sports fan, I pay attention to how a coach organizes the team, creates energy toward a shared goal, and adapts to change. Over […]

July 1, 2013 was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.  In the course of that three-day battle, the armies of the North and South deployed some 180,000 troops on the field of battle and suffered some 51,000 casualties and the course of American history was forever changed. Much has been written about the […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading, “If You Want People to Listen, Stop Talking,” comes from the pen of Peter Bregman and appeared in the Harvard Business Review blog on May 25, 2015.  Bergman is CEO of Bergman Partners, a company that strengthens leadership in people and organizations through programs, consulting, and coaching.  He is also author of […]

Adam Galinsky, a faculty member at the Columbia Business School, and author of the New York Times article “When You’re in Charge, Your Whisper May Feel Like a Shout,” recalls casually saying to one of his doctoral students, “I need to see you this afternoon.  Can you come by my office at 3 pm?”  He didn’t […]

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…” William Shakespeare’s As You Like It – Act II, Scene VII I had the distinct pleasure recently (sarcasm alert) of leading my team through an ERP […]

I attended the MOR IT Leaders conference in late May.  As an ITLP graduate who stepped into a CIO role two years ago, I was asked to share how I employ the elements of the MOR toolkit in my leadership role.  I’ve invested in relationships and focused on changing culture.  I’ve taken uncomfortable risks.  But, […]

No, today’s Tuesday Reading is not bad driving advice!  The curves here are those Brad Wheeler, Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer for Indiana University and a professor of information systems in IU’s Kelly School of Business, is speaking of in his January/February 2014 EDUCAUSE Review essay “Speeding Up On Curves” which is […]