The reading today, “Take ownership of your meeting experience”, appeared in the Facilitate.com blog and comes from the keyboard of Danuta McCall, a senior member of the Facilitate.com team.
The reading’s key point is that we, each as individual participants in a meeting, play a role in whether that meeting is successful or not. We do this through four choices:
Today’s reading comes from Anthony Tjan’s Harvard Business Review Blog. Tian is CEO of the venture capital firm Cue Ball and is a recognized business builder. The piece “Six Habits of a Talent Magnet,” which he wrote with Tsun-yan Hsiehm chair of the LinHart Group, can be found at <http://bit.ly/e5VSWy>.
A few weeks ago, one of the Harvard Business Review Blogs contained a short post by Linda Hill and Kent Lineback with the eye-catching title “The Words Many Managers Are Afraid to Say”. Linda A. Hill is the Wallace Brett Donham Professor Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Kent Lineback spent many years as a manager and an executive in business and government.
Last week my attention was drawn to a 2007 article by Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr. "What is this thing called CEO leadership?". Kraemer is clinical professor of management at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management and an executive partner with Madison Dearborn, a private equity firm based in Chicago. He is also the former chair and CEO of Baxter International, Inc., a global healthcare company.
On March 15,2011 Harvard Business Review's Management Tip of the Day was "Live Your Mission, Don't State It". Two sentences – "A mission statement is an abstraction. An organization on a mission is inspiring." – caught my eye in this summary of Dan Pallotta's HBR blog entry "Do You Have a Mission Statement, or Are You on a Mission?".
Last Saturday, Erik Lundberg, ITLP alum from the University of Washington, found at interesting piece – "Google's Quest to Build a Better Boss" – in the New York Times and sent it to me. Erik noted that "By analyzing data from within its own ranks, Google proves what management practitioners already preach. But then implements it in a way that resonates with technical/engineering types."
Today's reading focuses on building a practice to increase your daily personal effectiveness. The IT Leaders Program emphasizes being intentional and planful with the use of your time. Specifically, we've suggested identifying and formally setting aside regular times to plan your week/day. For example, you might schedule time Sunday evening or on Monday morning to review the coming week to make sure you have reserved time to address your priorities.
In today's reading "Thank You for Doing Your Job", Whitney Johnson argues the value of saying thank you for routine work that contributes to the organization's well being.
Today, there is too little praise or appreciation voiced in our work environments. In fact, I remember an organization that almost prided itself in being a "praise-free" zone. Yet genuine gratitude goes a long way to engage people and bind them together, to say nothing about strengthening an building relationships.
To some extent, and more so for some than others, we are all problem solvers. Most of the time we use ad hoc, informal, personal processes to solve problems. And, these often work at the “good enough” level. However, sometimes we miss good solutions, and even fail to identify the problem correctly in the first place.
Sherry Turkle, the Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, has a new book, “Alone Together.” In the book, Turkle raises an interesting point about how we get and maintain each other’s attention in our always-on-connectivity culture.