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Strategy

12.01.2015

Biased? We All Are!

In a recent essay, “Beyond Bias,” which is today’s Tuesday Reading, Heidi Grant Halvorson and David Rock wrote:   “Biases are nonconscious drivers – cognitive quirks – that influence how people see the world.  They appear to be universal in most of humanity, perhaps hardwired into the brain as part of our genetic or cultural heritage, […]
11.24.2015

Giving Thanks, Expressing Gratitude

This week we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, traditionally a day of giving thanks for the harvest (that provides our food) and for the preceding year.  History and tradition suggest that this celebration goes back in the United States at least to a 1621 feast in the Plymouth Colony celebrating a good harvest in the Colony’s first […]
11.19.2015

Power of Coaching – A Personal Reflective Journey

I would like to share my personal reflective journey to date, from the beginning.  I was invited to attend the MOR Advanced Leadership Program by my CIO at the beginning of the summer.  As one of the newest members of the OIT management/leadership team I immediately had two scenarios go through my mind. I haven’t been […]
11.19.2015

The Unicorn Meeting – A Reflection on a Leadership Topic

My take on an application of a topic from our first session. The Unicorn Meeting Throughout my professional career I’ve always wondered when I would catch a glimpse of the elusive Unicorn Meeting (the one ran with reason, direction, poise and purpose that you can only hope to walk into). Perhaps I would be the […]
11.17.2015

Meetings

We all attend too many meetings.  Some are initiated by others and we attend to contribute.  And some are our meetings, designed to further our team’s work.  Some of them are productive and some are not.  And, everyone I’ve talked to yearns for fewer of them. This week’s Tuesday Reading is drawn from Amy Gallo’s essay […]
11.10.2015

I Sit Too Much

Today’s Tuesday Reading, I Sit Too Much, should actually be titled “I Sit Too Much and So Do You.” Researchers agree that we all sit far too much, about 10 hours per day – hours at the desk, focused on the computer screen, reading and writing emails, working on reports, eating lunch, in meetings, in […]
11.03.2015

It’s A Bad Day Today

Who hasn’t had one?  No milk for the cereal.  A tanker truck cut you off as you were driving to work.  Joe wasn’t prepared for the meeting.  Sam’s presentation wasn’t aligned to the audience.  Stuff happens, and it usually leads to a foul mood. And, as I’ve been told many times, you have to learn […]
10.27.2015

Your To Do List and Your Calendar

I’ve attempted to maintain and effectively use a To Do list for much of my professional life.  At the moment, I have an application (Things) on my laptop, my iPhone, and my iPad that keeps the list synchronized.  This is really helpful, and would be even more helpful if I was good at keeping the […]
10.20.2015

Leadership Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg

July 1, 2013 was the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.  In the course of that three-day battle, the armies of the North and South deployed some 180,000 troops on the field of battle and suffered some 51,000 casualties and the course of American history was forever changed. Much has been written about the […]
10.13.2015

Learning to Lead

Our Tuesday Reading today is drawn from Robert Steven Kaplan’s new book, What You Really Need to Lead.  Kaplan was recently named President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  Previously he was the Martin Marshall Professor of Management Practice and a Senior Associate Dean at the Harvard Business School. In a review of […]
10.06.2015

Five Leadership Lessons of Frank Underwood

Today’s Tuesday Reading, The Five Leadership Lessons of Frank Underwood, is an essay written by Dustin Atkins last June.  Dustin is the Director of IT, Sponsored Research & Strategic Communications at Clemson University and is an alumnus of the MOR Leaders Program. In the spirit of bringing you all to South Carolina, I thought I […]
09.29.2015

5 Myths About Introverts and Extroverts

Adam Grant, in a recent blog post, 5 Myths About Introverts and Extroverts, debunks five strongly held beliefs about introverts.  Grant has been recognized as Wharton’s top-rated teacher for four straight years, as one of the world’s top 40 business professors under 40, and as one of HR’s most influential international thinkers.  He is the author […]
09.24.2015

Brave is Good/Prepared is Better – Networking is Good/Investing is Better – Lessons are Good/Change is Better

As I sit here before our last dinner and day together as a formal group, I remember our first day together and my inherent skepticism about whether this program would be much different from other leadership programs. I seem to have neglected the obvious difference between one week long leadership programs and eight month long […]
09.15.2015

From Annual Performance Reviews To Weekly Check-Ins

Over the past few weeks, a number of articles about performance reviews and performance management have made it to my inbox.  Some of these are listed as references below. Most universities, and most businesses for that matter, have annual employee rating systems that, through a process of evaluating the individual, assign to him or her […]
09.08.2015

Life Balance

Today’s Tuesday Reading, Life Balance, is an essay by Jenn Stringer, Associate CIO, Academic Engagement and Director of Educational Technology Services at the University of California Berkeley.  Jenn is also a recent MOR Leaders Program alumnus.  Her essay first appeared as a program reflection last winter. We gave quite a bit of time and lip […]
09.01.2015

The Balance of Planning and Spontaneity

Today’s Tuesday Reading, The Balance of Planning and Spontaneity – What We Can Learn From Bilbo Baggins’s Journey Through Mirkwood, comes from the pen of David Kaplan – writer, software developer, and all around thinker of wacky thoughts.  It was published on medium.com in their Life Hack: Your Story, Experience, etc. blog which shares the […]
08.21.2015

Reflections on Leadership: All the World's a Stage

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts…” William Shakespeare’s As You Like It – Act II, Scene VII I had the distinct pleasure recently (sarcasm alert) of leading my team through an ERP […]
08.19.2015

Engage Your Staff

In a recent Interact/Harris Poll of some 1000 U.S. workers, 91% of the respondents said communication issues prevent leaders from being as effective as they might be.  The most frequent issues noted in the survey were:  1  Not recognizing employee achievements2  Not giving clear directions3  Not having time to meet with employees4  Refusing to talk […]
08.11.2015

Triggers

Marshall Goldsmith, one of the best known executive coaches in the U.S., has just published a new book, Triggers:  Creating Behavior That Lasts, Becoming the Person You want to Be.  One of the things that caught my eye in one of the book’s reviews that I read, was a practice Goldsmith has to bring significant […]
08.04.2015

G–I–V–E Feedback: A Path to Improvement

Today’s Tuesday Reading, G–I–V–E Feedback:  A Path to Improvement, is an essay by Mary Therese Durr, Director of Computing Support and Information Technology Service Management at Boston College an ad MOR Leaders Program alumnus.  Her essay provides an additional tool, beyond those in the Tuesday Readings of last June, for formulating and giving feedback. There […]