Relationships
Gratitude
Today’s Tuesday Reading, Gratitude, is a reflection written earlier this year by Jaime Thompson. Jaime supports IT in the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota and is a participant in the Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) there. What I am feeling this week is gratitude and how I identified it was through a […]
Asking Good Questions
Today’s Tuesday Reading, Asking Good Questions, continues the series begun last week. There we noted that asking good questions is as important as listening well. After all, a major part of a leader’s job is initiating and building relationships, collaborating to craft a vision and strategies, developing an understanding of the work and desired results, […]
Leadership Lessons from Secretary Clinton’s Email Decisions
I suspect that we all have heard enough about Secretary Clinton’s decisions, first to use a non-government email server for both her government-related email as well as her personal email, and subsequently about the processes followed to preserve or delete emails. And, that you like me want to be done with it. Even with that as […]
Stepping Up to Peer Pressure
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 […]
Additional Thoughts on Networking
Last week I was attracted to a short piece [1] on networking by Marc Thompson. Thompson is an author, leadership coach, and investor. The article’s title, “Why Jeff Bezos, Tony Hsieh and Al Gore Told Me to Stop Networking,” was what caught my eye. Thompson notes at the beginning of the piece that the typical advice […]
How Shall I Listen
“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 […]
Employee Morale
For the past three weeks, the Tuesday Readings have focused on one or another facet of employee engagement. Today, we shift the focus a bit and turn our attention to “Employee Morale.” Our author is Vi Bergquist, CIO at St Cloud Technical & community college. Vi’s essay was a recent weekly reflection in one of […]
Employee Engagement – What's a Manager to Do? (Part 2)
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. […]
Employee Engagement – What's a Manager to Do?
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 […]
Thanks Giving, Gratitude
This week, at least in the United States, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, traditionally a day of giving thanks for the harvest (that provides our food) and for the preceding year. History suggests that this celebration goes back in the United States at least to a 1621 feast in the Plymouth Colony celebrating a good harvest […]
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 […]
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, […]
How to Override Your Default Reactions in Tough Conversations
We all encounter tough conversations almost daily. Today’s Tuesday Reading, How to Override Your Default Reactions in Tough Moments, provides some oft-needed help. The essay is by Lee Newman, Dean of Innovation and Behavior and a professor of Behavioral Science and Leadership at IE Business School in Madrid, and appeared earlier this year on the HBR Blog Network. […]
"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, […]
6 Steps to Turn Strangers into Connections
All of us want to expand the breadth of our networks and build stronger relationships. Today’s Tuesday Reading, “6 Steps to Turn Strangers into Connections“ which appeared in FastCompany, gives us some helpful suggestions to do just that. The essay’s author is Stephanie Vozza who writes about business and time management and is the author of The […]
Mood And Engagement Are Contagious
Today’s Tuesday Reading is “Mood And Engagement Are Contagious” and first appeared in Joe Folkman’s Forbes column. Folkman describes himself as “a behavioral statistician who covers evidence-based improvement.” More conventionally, he is co-founder and president of Zenger-Folkman, a consulting firm that works to improve organizations and the people within them. There’s not a one […]
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 […]
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 […]
What To Do In Your Last 30 Days
The Tuesday Reading today is “What to do in your last 30 days,” an essay written by Helen Norris, 2007 ITLP alum, and until recently Associate CIO at California State University, Sacramento. As of yesterday (June 2, 2014), Helen became CIO of Chapman University in Orange, California. In a note to me, she said that […]
Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy
Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy Today’s reading is Three Ways Leaders Can Listen with More Empathy, an essay by Christine M. Riordan, Provost at the University of Kentucky and an expert in leadership development and workplace diversity. The essay appeared on the HBR Blog Network. Riordan observes that “The ability and willingness to listen […]