Influence

Today’s reading “The Secret of Dealing with Difficult People:  It’s About You” comes from Tony Schwartz’s blog at the Harvard Business Review.  Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent At Anything.  Almost everyone of us has someone who routinely triggers us.  It may be the cynic in […]

This week’s reading is a piece “What Steve Jobs Taught Me About Growth” by Nilofer Merchant.  Merchant is a writer for the Harvard Business Review.  This piece is part of the HBR Insight Center Growing the Top Line. The text of this post focuses on corporate growth, and Apple’s in particular, and, more importantly for higher […]

Luca Baiguni, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Personal Development at the Politecnico di Milano, was recently was in Barcelona on business and spent some time visiting the city.  One of his must see places was the Sagrada Famìla, the basilica universally considered the masterpiece of Antoni Gaudì, the Spanish architect who lived from 1852 to […]

In the sports world, a “clutch” player performs best when the pressure is on.  [See “Learning to be a ‘Clutch’ Leader” by Sean Silverstone, editor of HBS’s Working Knowledge newsletter.]  In the thinking of Paul Sullivan, New York Times business columnist and author of “Clutch:  Why Some People Excel Under Pressure and Others Don’t,”  the best example of a “clutch” […]

Today’s reading is a Matt Richtel piece “Growing Up Digital, Wired fro Distraction” which first appeared in the New York Times on November 21, 2010.   This piece caught my attention for three reasons: 1.  The picture it conveys of teenagers’ use of technology today.  While my kids, three decades ago when they were  teenagers, were distracted and, in […]

I found today’s Tuesday Reading in yesterday’s New York Times.  Matt Richtel had a wonderful piece “Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain” that reports on a five day trip by five neuroscientists plus Richtel, and a guide, rafting, hiking, and camping along the San Juan River in the Glen Canyon National Recreational Area […]

Today’s Reading, “Never Duck the Tough Questions”, is an interview with Dawn Lepore, chair and CEO of Drugstore.com.  The interview was conducted by Adam Bryant and originally appeared in the Corner Office column of the July 18, 2010 New York Times. What impressed me from the column was the set of leadership lessons Ms Lepore learned over […]

Dan Heath in today’s Reading – “Want Your Organization to Change?  Put Feelings First” – points out that typically when we want people to change, we try to teach them something.  Sounds good, right?  WRONG!  According to Heath and John Kotter, knowledge rarely leads to change. Heath observes that we know that obesity causes significant health problems but people don’t […]

This Tuesday’s reading is “Communicating Vision”, by John Maxwell, prolific writer and speaker on leadership. In this short article, Maxwell outlines an approach for communicating a clear and compelling organizational vision.  (You will notice many similarities to the SUCCES tool that we have presented in many of the MOR leadership program workshops.) He makes six recommendations: […]

If you are leading a change initiative, then you must be an influencer for that initiative to be successful.  Yet studies have shown that only one in five leaders are able to influence positive change in a way that it lasts.  What’s going on? Today’s reading is “The Influencers:  The Top Five Reasons Leaders Lack Influence”.  In this […]

Much of a leader’s time is spent, formally or informally, working to influence decision makers, typically peers, cross-organizational colleagues, or those higher up in the organization.  The Tuesday Reading this week – Effectively Influencing Decision Makers:  Ensuring That Your Knowledge Makes a Difference – focuses on just this subject. To begin the article, Marshall Goldsmith quotes […]

John Maxwell, a very prolific writer on leadership, is the author of our Tuesday Reading for today:  “Influence:  Connecting with People”. Maxwell’s thesis is straightforward;  … “until leaders learn the art of connection, their influence remains minimal.”  To help us make connections, he offers eight practical steps: 1.  Don’t take people for granted. 2.  Possess a difference-maker mindset. 3.  Initiate movement toward […]

How often have you laid out for your team, perhaps in a presentation followed by a clearly written document, a future state for the team as well as the strategies for getting there.  And, you wait, and wait, and nothing happens. This is the situation that Marshall Goldsmith addresses in “Don’t Just Check the Box”.  Though […]

We all remember Ron Heifetz from the first day of the IT Leaders Program.  There we learned about “adaptive leadership,” “giving work back to the workers,” and about “getting up on the balcony.” Today’s reading “The Leader of the Future” reports on a series of 2007 conversations that William Taylor, a founding editor of Fast Company, had […]

This week, I want to share with you “Memo to a Young Leader” by William Taylor, co-founder of Fast Company and thinker, writer, and entrepreneur.  In this piece, which appeared in the May 8, 2008 issue of BusinessWeek, he asks five questions that you need solid answers for to be an inspiring leader. 1.  Why should great […]

In “How to Make Nice,” Susan Cramm addresses the issue of influencing others.  She begins by noting that “Getting others to do what you want them to do because they want to do it is the ultimate test of leadership skill.”  Cramm then focuses on rebuilding relationships that have been damaged — who hasn’t gotten themselves […]

In the March 3, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal’s Journal Report there was an interesting piece by James Kelly and Scott Nadler titled “Leading From Below.”  They note that CEOs — and I would add leaders in general — cannot change organizations on their own.  They suggest that the secret is to foster a […]

In a pieces spread over three issues beginning in late January NetworkWorld discusses the IT profession in the year 2010      http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/edu/2006/0123ed1.html      http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/edu/2006/0130ed1.html      http://www.networkworld.com/newsletters/edu/2006/0213ed1.html   Based upon Gartner report, the articles suggest that “technical aptitude alone will no longer be enough”, IT leaders will need to possess expertise in multiple […]

As all of your know by now, I read a lot from a lot of sources. Yesterday, a newsletter called Marketplace Moments written by a friend, Randy Kilgore, reached my desk.  It carries a story which I want to repeat:   “It’s December 17, 1941. The citizens of the town of North Platte, Nebraska heard […]

I’ve attached another very helpful note authored by John Baldoni about how leaders can be helpful, graciously.   I think that you will find the comments useful…………….jim ON LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION Being Helpful — Graciously BY : John Baldoni 03/01/2005 Lessons in the management art that goes one step beyond. One of Franklin Roosevelt’s favorite things to do during […]