Leadership

Power is a subject that is not often discussed in public.  Yet, an individual cannot be a leader without having power, “the potential to influence others.”  In this week’s Tuesday Reading, “Power Plays:  How to Use Your Power Wisely” from the December 2008 Issue of the Center for Creative Leadership’s Newsletter Leading Effectively, outlines nine strategies for levering your […]

This week’s Tuesday Reading “Taking Control of Your Work Life Balance and Gaining Personal Fulfillment” takes a hard look at work life balance.  In her review of clinical psychologist Henry Cloud’s new book “The One Life Solution,” Meridith Levinson, a CIO staff writer, wrote: ” Work will consume as much time as we allow it.  It will take […]

Today’s reading “IT Careers:  5 Tips for Charting Your 100 Day Plan“ by Mary Pratt, a Computerworld contributing writer in Waltham, MA, focuses on developing a plan for the next 100 days.  The point being that the more you have a vision of where you want to be in 100 days and a well thought out plan for […]

Today’s reading, “Degrees of Giving” by Bruna Martinuzzi, comes from the MindTools November 25th, 2008 newsletter.   Last week we celebrated Thanksgiving and were with our families and thought about all the reasons we have to be thankful.  We may have thought about giving — giving thanks, giving of our time, giving material gifts, etc.  Such gifts […]

  In today’s reading “How to Deal with Problem Employees”, John Baldoni addresses an issue that every manager and leader will, sooner or later, have to address -– confronting an employee whose behavior disrupts other staff.  When such behavior occurs, if we don’t step up, we are saying by our actions that it is OK for […]

In today’s Tuesday Reading “It’s Not About You”, Robert Joss, Phillip H. Knight Professor and Dean, Stanford Graduate School of Business, recalls a Jack Welch talk about leadership and Welch’s book, Winning.  As Joss recalls, Welch’s most profound comment was that leadership is not about you;  it’s about the people who work for you.  “The day you become a […]

Throughout ITLP we talk about the importance of listening, of choosing to carefully pay attention to and to understand what is being said. Today’s Reading “Soft Skills:  Listening for Better Leadership” addresses this topic.  In the piece, the author Diann Daniel notes that listening conveys respect, not listening makes people feel devalued and less motivated;  good listening empowers, not […]

Today’s reading is “The Success Delusion — Why It Can Be So Hard for Successful Leaders to Change” from the Marshall Goldsmith Library.  Goldsmith’s thesis is straightforward:  The more successful we become, the more positive reinforcement we get, the more difficult it will be for us to make the changes we need to make to continue […]

This week we turn our attention to Generation Y, those individuals with ages 21-31, the youngest members of our staff.  The reading is “Leadership Lessons We Can Learn from Generation Y” which appeared in the July 9, 2008 issue of Fast Company. Bea Fields, author of this piece and Executive Coach, Speaker and Author as well […]

Early in every Leadership Program group, we spend some time talking about delegation.  Today’s Tuesday Reading, “How Well Do You Delegate?” from the Mind Tools website, brings us all back to this topic. In the piece, you’ll find an opportunity to test how well you currently delegate as well as find some suggestions as to what and when to delegate, […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is John Baldoni’s column “Why Leaders Need People Skills”.  This is a familiar topic to alumni of the IT Leaders Program but I thought that we could all benefit from Baldoni’s point of view.  He notes:  “Top executives [and I would say leaders at all levels] are … returning to a most fundamental tenet of […]

This week’s Tuesday Reading is “Six Tips for Fessing Up to Your Mistakes” by Deborah Brown-Volkman, president of Surpass Your Dreams, a career, life, and mentor coaching company. If you haven’t made a mistake you can pass this week’s reading.  But, somehow, I think you may find the column interesting.  We all mistakes and it is […]

A number of you are fans of David Allen and follow many of the recommendations in his book, “Getting Things Done.”  Our reading this week is “The Curse Of The Eternally Urgent” which you will find at <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-allen/the-curse-of-the-eternall_b_96512.html>. In this piece Allen argues that many of the fires and crises that we find on our desk […]

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 […]

Over the past few weeks I’ve seen a number of pieces about how email is disruptive, how some companies are suggesting ways to that staff might step away from the constant flow of interruptions, how IM, blogs, and wikis can be effective in reducing your email load, etc.  So, there seems to be even more […]

Over the past week or so, it has seemed that everywhere I turned I ran across an article or a book with leadership or leader in the title:  Vigilant Leadership, Adaptive Leadership, the Leader of the Future, Better Leadership, and Total Leadership.  Today’s piece, Mark Hanna’s “Probing the Periphery:  Mastering Vigilant Leadership” is from the June […]

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 […]

Today’s reading is “The Hiring Manager Interviews:  Harvard Business School’s CIO Builds Trust and Respect Among His IT Staff by Involving Them in His Hiring Process” which you can find at  <http://www.cio.com/article/358465/The_Hiring_Manager_Interviews_Harvard_Business_School_s_CIO_Builds_Trust_and_Respect_Among_His_IT_Staff_by_Involving_Them_in_His_Hiring_Process>. Here, Amanda Brady, associate director of executive search firm The Alexander Group, reports on a recent discussion with Stephen Laster, CIO at the […]

Too often, we take people for granted.  In this week’s Tuesday Reading “Staff Retention:  The Power of Appreciation at Work”, Mike Robbins quotes the U.S. Department of Labor as noting that 64% of Americans who leave their jobs say they do so because they don’t feel appreciated.  And, Gallup reports that 70% of people in the U.S. say […]

Here’s the “Tuesday Reading” I sent out today to everyone who has been in the IT Leaders Program over the past several years.  Based upon the discussion Saturday, I’m sending it along to you as well. As society has become more and more connected with technology, we feel compelled to be always on – 24/7/365.  […]