Leadership

We’ve all been in situations where we’ve succumbed to peer pressure.  We often argue to ourselves that it’s too hard to step up with a different point of view – we won’t be liked, we’ll do harm to our relationships, and after all it’s not that big of a deal.  However, in many cases, it […]

“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 […]

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.  […]

Last week’s Tuesday Reading, “Employee Engagement – What?” focused on what employee engagement is.   According to Kevin Kruse in Employee Engagement 2.0, “Employee engagement is the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals.  This emotional commitment means engaged employees actually care about their work and their company.  They don’t work just for a […]

The issue of employee engagement has surfaced in several ways over the past few weeks – what is it?, why is it important?, should I be concerned about my team’s engagement?, how would I improve it?, what could/should a team member do to increase his/her engagement?, etc.  This issue and these questions have led to […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]