Leadership

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Theresa Bamrick, CIO at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory operated by Stanford University. Her essay first appeared as a leaders program reflection last fall. [Theresa may be reached at <[email protected]>.]    I come from a cranberry and fishing town near Cape Cod, MA. My parents were born in the Greatest […]

New Practices for the New Year Here we are, a week after New Year’s Day. Now, if you are a typical American, there’s a 40% chance that you have made one or more New Year’s Resolutions. Babylonians made resolutions 4000 years ago, and since then, a lot of us have followed. I think this is […]

Harry Davis is the first individual to connect leadership and performance art that I ever encountered. He is the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Distinguished Service Professor of Creative Management at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. We met at the 2008 MOR Leaders Conference1 where Professor Davis was the featured speaker. His […]

Two weeks ago, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I wrote about gratitude – the importance of expressing gratitude, how to cultivate a practice of showing gratitude, and about the impact our showing gratitude has on others.  After completing that essay, I watched the CBS Friday (November 15) Evening News. The last of the evening’s news items was […]

Over the past year, I have written on many topics, but never on courage. I’m prompted to do so now by a Time Magazine article “America’s Reigning Expert on Feelings, Brené Brown Now Takes on Leadership,”1 which follows the recent publication of Brown’s fifth major book, Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.2 Fundamentally, the book […]

… a technique that allows people to iterate on ideas without using harsh or judgmental language. While used typically in teams and on the ideas of others, plussing works equally well on one’s own ideas – when one’s self critic can be particularly vocal. You may never have previously encountered the word “plussing.” Neither had […]

… a strong desire to know or learn something Previous Tuesday Readings have focused on curiosity,1,2,3 on the very related topic of asking questions,4,5 and the further related topic of psychological safety6 on numerous occasions. Given these six examples along with a larger number of additional Tuesday Readings focused on aspects of this topic I’ve not listed as References, […]

Network Director, Cross-country biker, Elementary School Bus Drive, Elementary School Bus Driver AND Network Director Daniel Schmiedt is the author of today’s Tuesday Reading. He is Interim Executive Director of Network Services and Telecommunications at Clemson University and an Elementary School Bus Driver. Dan is also a 2014 alumnus of the MOR Leaders program. This essay […]

There is nothing particularly special about hearing negative voices in your head. I suspect that most of us have, at one time or another. Some of us may even hear these voices frequently. And, some of these voices may be so strident as to lead one to disbelieve the credibility of any successes that she […]

Some two weeks ago, Senator John McCain died. While some saw him as a maverick, someone with a strong independent streak, he was also determined to do what he believed right, even at a high personal cost. He is an American hero – for his five and a half years as a prisoner in a […]

… and School Will Soon Be Back in Session I’m sure that it is as hard for you, as it is for me, to realize that summer vacations are over, Labor Day is upon us, and children of all ages are going back to school. My middle three grandchildren are either at college or will […]

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.”                   – Brenè Brown   The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines vulnerable as capable of being physically or emotionally wounded, open to attack and damage.   Robert Stolorow,1 psychologist, author, and a founding faculty member at the Institute for Psychoanalytic Study, has […]

… How are you seen? “All the world’s a stage …  And, one man [or woman] in his [or her] time plays many parts.”                                                                 […]

… Own them, learn from them, don’t repeat them mis•take  noun  an action or judgment that is misguided or wrong.   “The only man [or woman] who never makes a mistake is the man [or woman] who never does anything.”                                     – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States     We all make mistakes, […]

… How Do I Respond?   Recently, I came across a short essay by one of my favorite leadership writers, Paul Axtell.  Axtell is an author of several books, including Meetings Matter: 8 Powerful Strategies for Remarkable Conversations,1 and a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review blogs. The piece that caught my attention is “How to […]

Today, most organizations, including a university’s IT organization, structure their work through a set of teams. Other examples include professional sports teams with their structure, their practice day-after-day of plays they may execute in the game, and a surgical team that performs the same procedure, for example, hip replacement, under tightly controlled conditions, perhaps multiple […]

… How do I respond?   Compliments are a good thing, right? Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done. Especially from someone whose work you admire. They are a special form of positive feedback. However, many of us find accepting a compliment with grace to be a major challenge. Too often, our […]

… Helpful thoughts for the next stages of your life’s journey   Every year beginning near the end of May and continuing into early June, there is a flurry of activity at this country’s educational institutions. In the U.S., there are over 4,200 degree granting colleges and universities and over 20,500 high schools who each […]

Yesterday was Memorial Day, our holiday for remembering all those – some 1.4 million from the American Revolution until now – who gave their lives in conflicts while serving in our nation’s armed forces.    The idea of having a time to commemorate those who have died in the line of duty while serving their […]

The MOR Leaders Program, as the name implies, is about leadership.  Just what is it that leaders do and how do they go about doing it?  Two weeks ago, we focused on the humble leader.  There we wrote about what makes a leader humble1 and how a leader can cultivate those characteristics in his or her […]