Team

I faced significant pushback from others when making changes. This confounded me until we studied Van Maanen’s three lenses on organizational change.

Transitioning from technical work to leadership involves coaching managers and aligning on context, philosophy, and goals.

What Would Donna Do?  [Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Beth Holtz, Senior Manager for Strategic Initiatives and Administration in Research Computing, Princeton University.  She is a MOR alum.  Beth may be reached at [email protected].]   I have a tendency to over commit. Not only am I a people-pleaser, but I also get great satisfaction contributing […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is by Rick Fredericks, MOR Associates Program Leader and Leadership Coach.  Rick may be reached at [email protected]] My first adult job was stacking lumber at a saw mill on the far western slope of the Rocky Mountains. This in the days when logs were held in a pond before debarking. Sawdust was […]

[Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Bill Wrobleski, Associate Vice President of Infrastructure at Penn State University.  He is a 2007 MOR alum, which he claims is the best MOR cohort of all-time.  Bill may be reached at [email protected].]   I’ve never been invited to my own team’s leadership meeting. Yes, that’s what I said. My […]

[Author of today’s Tuesday Reading is Jim Bruce, Senior Fellow and Executive Coach at MOR Associates. He previously served as Professor of Electrical Engineering, and Vice President for Information Systems and CIO at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA. Jim may be reached at [email protected].]   A few weeks ago, in the Tuesday Reading What’s […]

Last week the Tuesday Reading, On Being Grateful,1 focused on showing appreciation and called attention to a quote from Robert Emmons, University of California, Davis psychologist and author: “Feeling gratitude starts off with the realization of what we have received from others and what it has cost them.”2   This led me to suggest four ways that […]

… to be truly effective, you need to be!   Bill Taylor, Robert J. Smith Professor of Accountancy at Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Business and an expert on subjective performance evaluation, has said it this way: “… I’m convinced that if you truly want people to elevate their performance, you have first to […]

… they surround us   No matter where you look, you will find both unwritten and written rules – rules at work, rules that are personal to you, rules for your family, rules about your social interactions, rules at home, rules everywhere. Some are “written” by others including your organization, and many, likely the majority, by […]

“Humble listening” is among the top four characteristics of leader.1  —  Jeff Immelt, Former 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.”2,3     —   Henry Ford.  “To […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Monika R. Dressler. Director of Academic Technologies, in the LSA Technology Services group at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. She is an alumnus of the MOR Leaders Program. Her essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year. [Monika may be reached at […]

Where are you on the burnout scale — exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy — to fully engaged — energy, dedication, and absorbed?1   In a 2018 paper, Seppälä and Moeller2 introduce a young woman who is in a new workplace. She really liked her new job and was highly motivated to perform well. She undertook, and was highly successful at, organizing a […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Dave Acheson, Network Operations, Information Systems and Technology, Chapman University. His essay first appeared as a leaders program reflection earlier this year. [Dave may be reached at  <[email protected]>.]    Since my MOR Associates Leaders Program came to an end, I have struggled to continue the strides I felt […]

– Upping your game In last week’s Tuesday Reading, Questions: How many have you asked today, we argued that the practice of asking questions is more important than any one of the answers we may be given, as asking builds our knowledge, teaches us about people, engages others, communicates value, sets an example, and develops […]

Several times over the past few years, the Tuesday Reading has focused on biases: Biased? We all are. Bias — If you have a brain, you’re biased. Mitigating Bias — When hiring staff. Train Your Brain — To help you avoid your biases. Today, we continue with this general theme focusing on the unconscious nature of many […]

… Let it go. “Holding a grudge is like swallowing poison and expecting the other person to be hurt by it.”                                                              —— Mark Goulston, M.D. author […]

Ever have the fear that someone is always watching you, just waiting for you to foul-up?   Michael Gervais, psychologist and co-founder of Compete to Create, a high performance mindset training course, wrote in a recent Harvard Business Review essay “How to Stop Worrying About What Other People Think of You,”1 that our “fear of other people’s […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Amanda Winegarden, a Security Risk Analyst in the University Information Security Group at the University of Minnesota. She is a new alumna from the recently graduated MOR Lead From Where You Are Program at the University of Minnesota. Her essay first appeared as a program reflection earlier this year. [Amanda […]

Today’s Tuesday Reading is an essay by Mark Katsouros, Director of Voice & Video at the Pennsylvania State University. Mark is an early alumnus of the MOR Leaders Program. His essay first appeared in his blog Mark My Words on September 13, 2018. [Mark may be reached at <[email protected]>.]  Ever have one of those mornings where you realize you’re […]

Leaders must be men and women who influence others to enable them to become more effective. In her essay Five Principles to Follow If You Want to Influence Others,1 Amy Glass, writes “No matter your role, influence is key to solving problems and making things happen. … [T]his means persuading people to help you affect change, […]