Leadership

11.11.2014
7 Ways You’re Unconsciously Undermining Yourself
The Tuesday Reading today is 7 Ways You’re Unconsciously Undermining Yourself. The essay was written by Gwen Moran for FastCompany.com. Moran writes about business, money and assorted other topics for leading publications and web sites. She is co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans. There are things we all do that undermine ourselves, that make others think we’re not effective […]

11.11.2014
IT Leaders Program – Tenth Anniversary
Ten years ago today, the first workshop of the first MOR IT Leaders Program, held at the University of Chicago, came to an end. Beth Hayes, Penn State participant in that first cycle, has written of that time: “Attending the IT Leadership Program was a game changer. As our session began, I was concurrently moving […]

11.04.2014
7 Bad Habits That Made Me a Terrible Boss
The Tuesday Reading today is “7 Bad Habits That Made Me a Terrible Boss”. This essay first appeared in inc.com where its author, John Brandon, writes the Tech Report column. He is also a contributing editor at Inc. magazine. Brandon has frequently written about his mistakes and how to he was a terrible leader. The habits he writes about […]

10.28.2014
Creating a Pocket of Greatness
Last summer, for a leadership reflection, John Shutt, Instructional Media Coordinator at Michigan State University, pointed his colleagues in their leadership program, to a short audio clip of Jim Collins’ discussion of “Creating a Pocket of Greatness.” Collins is a noted leadership author known for his books Good to Great and Level 5 Leadership. The central focus of […]

10.20.2014
3 Underappreciated IT Leadership Skills?
The Tuesday Reading today is “3 Underappreciated IT Leadership Skills?”, a commentary appearing this past July in Information Week. The essay’s authors are Whitney Hischier and Rajiv Ball, lecturers at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business where they teach the Business Leadership for IT Professionals program. Ball and Hischier note that today’s world is far […]

10.14.2014
Leadership is a Contact Sport
Today’s Tuesday Reading is actually a Marshall Goldsmith video “Leadership is a Contact Sport”. In this video Goldsmith teaches a very straightforward model for development as a leader or as a team member. It has eight steps: 1. Ask. Create a habit of asking people important questions – how could I have done a […]

09.23.2014
A lead-manage-do journey
A reflection shared by MOR Leaders alum, Jim Hall from UMN. Jim writes, “We only have so much time in a given week. How you divide your time is up to you. But where should you provide focus? Lead, manage, or do? The “lead-manage-do” concept helps us to understand the focus we need to put […]

09.23.2014
To Get Honest Feedback, Leaders Need to Ask
Today’s Tuesday Reading is “To Get Honest Feedback, Leaders Need to Ask”, as essay from the pens of Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner which appeared on the HBR Blog Network. Kouzes and Posner are coauthors of The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations. Both are at Santa Clara University where Posner […]
09.16.2014
“The Behaviors that Define A-Players”
Today’s Tuesday Reading, “The Behaviors that Define A-Players”, focuses on identifying those leadership skills that make a difference between good and exceptional individual performers. The essay comes from the pens of Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman and appeared in the Harvard Business Review boogs. Zenger and Folkman are CEO and president of the leadership consultancy Zenger | Folkman […]
09.09.2014
Develop Strategic Thinkers Throughout Your Organization
The Tuesday Reading today is “Develop Strategic Thinkers Throughout Your Organization” by Robert Kabacoff, Vice President of Research at the Management Research Group. The essay appeared in the HBR Blog earlier this year. Kabacoff begins his essay by noting that multiple studies have shown that “strategic thinkers are found to be among the most highly effective leaders.” He […]
09.02.2014
How to Communicate Effectively at Work
Today’s Tuesday Reading, “How to Communicate Effectively at Work” first appeared two years ago as a nine picture slide deck embedded in a Forbes’ article that reports on Karen Friedman’s book Shut Up And Say Something: Business Communication Strategies to Overcome Challenges and Influence Listeners. The author of the article is by Susan Adams. For me, […]
08.19.2014
"Stop winning so much." What?
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, […]

07.29.2014
The Case for and Against Stressful Deadlines
Today’s Tuesday Reading, “The Case for and Against Stressful Deadlines” comes to us from the pen of Laura Vanderkem and recently appeared at FastCompany.com. Vanderkem is a well-known writer who questions the status quo and helps readers rediscover their true passions and beliefs in pursuit of more meaningful lives. Some of us abhor deadlines, some of […]

07.22.2014
Curiosity and Leadership
Today’s Tuesday Reading, Curiosity and Leadership, was written by Sarah Miller as a Leadership Reflection for the CIC X Leaders Program cohort. Sara is Faculty Engagement Service Leader in the Division of Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Curosity lives where learning and motivation intersect.
What does curiosity have to do […]

06.10.2014
Every Leader Needs a Challenger in Chief
This week’s Tuesday Reading is Every Leader Needs a Challenger in Chief, an essay, which appeared last fall at bloomberg dot com, by Noreena Hertz. Hertz is professor of globalization at Rotterdam School om Management, Erasmus University and University College London, and is author of Eyes Wide Open: How to Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World. Professor […]

05.20.2014
4 Habits of the Most Resilient People
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 […]

05.13.2014
Overcome the Eight Barriers to Confidence
Today’s Tuesday Reading turns to the subject of confidence by considering Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s essay “Overcome the Eight Barriers to Confidence”. Professor Kanter is Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor at the Harvard Business School and the author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End. Kanter notes that to be a more confident […]

05.06.2014
The Best of TED: 5 Public Speaking Lessons from 30 Years of Spreading Ideas
Today’s reading, “The Best of TED” is a story that appeared in a March issue of FastCompany. It’s based on research by Carmine Gallo who analyzed 500 of the most popular TED talks to identify what makes a TED talk great. Gallo is a technology writer and author of Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets […]

04.22.2014
Lessons in Leadership: How Lincoln Became America’s Greatest President
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 […]