Tuesday Reading
08.21.2012
The Simplicity Thesis
Today’s reading is “The Simplicity Thesis” by Aaron Levie, CEO and cofounder of Box. Levie begins his piece with the provocative statement “A fascinating trend is consuming Silicon Valley and beginning to eat away at the rest of the world: the radical simplification of everything.” He continues by noting Jeff Bezos’ “rallying cry against gatekeepers […]
08.14.2012
Olympic Games
Today’s reading “Olympic Games” is a reflection from Julie Shuttleworth, member of the 2012 Leadership@Penn cohort. She is Director of Administrative Affairs in the Provost’s office at the University of Pennsylvania. She writes: With the 2012 Summer Olympics having just ended, I am reminded that it takes vision, hard work, dedication, presence and some natural talent […]
08.07.2012
How to Get Feedback When You’re the Boss
Today’s reading is “How to Get Feedback When You’re the Boss” and is from Amy Gallo’s pen. She is a contributing editor at the Harvard Business Review. Gallo observes that as you move up in an organization you receive less constructive feedback on your ideas, performance and strategy. The point is no one wants to offend the […]
07.31.2012
How to craft an email that gets a reply
For today’s Tuesday Reading, I thought we might revisit the topic of email. The piece, “How to craft an email that gets a reply”, which appeared at the cbs.com business blog, arrived along with a batch of email that seemed to violate its principles and reminded me of the importance of taking the time to write […]
07.24.2012
I Have Terrible News: Value of Communication in Honesty
Today’s Tuesday Reading, “I Have Terrible News: Value of Communication in Honesty”, is a Jack Zenger article which appeared at Forbes.com. Zenger is CEO of Zenger | Folkman, a Utah-based consulting company focused on leadership development. He and his partner, Joe Folkman, are authors of The Extraordinary Leader. The key idea in this article is […]
07.17.2012
Stop Chasing the Wrong Priorities
Today’s reading – “Stop Chasing the Wrong Priorities” – comes from the pens of Kelly Goldsmith and Marshall Goldsmith and appeared in a recent CBS News blog. Marshall Goldsmith is a well-known author, leadership thinker, and executive coach. Kelly Goldsmith is assistant professor of marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. The reading builds […]
07.10.2012
6 steps to Resolve cConflict
Today’s Reading is a blog entry “6 steps to resolve conflict”by Robert Pagliarini which appeared recently on the CBS News MoneyWatch website. Pagliarini works to inspire others to live life to the fullest by challenging the way they invest their time and energy. We all experience conflict and the emotional turmoil that ensues. So, what can one do […]
07.03.2012
12 Things Good Bosses Believe
This week’s Tuesday Reading “12 Things Good Bosses Believe”comes from Bob Sutton’s pen and appeared in the Harvard Business Review blogs. Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He studies and writes about management, innovation, and the nitty-gritty of organizational life. He is author of Good Boss, Bad Boss. Part of Sutton’s research has […]
06.26.2012
The Flight from Conversation
Today’s reading is “The Flight from Conversation”by Sherry Turkle. The article appeared in the April 21, 2012 edition of the New York Times. Professor Turkle is a psychologist and Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT. She is the author of a number of books including “Alone Together: […]
06.19.2012
To-Do Lists Don’t Work
Recently Daniel Markovitz wrote “To-Do Lists Don’t Work” for the Harvard Business Review blogs. I found the posting to be a good discussion of why we all wrestle with making our to-do lists work and decided to share it as today’s Tuesday Reading. Markovitzis president of TimeBack Management and the author of A Factory of One. He […]
06.12.2012
Go to Lunch and Clean Out Your Inbox
Today’s Reading, “Go to Lunch and Clean Out Your Inbox,” was originally written as a weekly reflection by Stephen Kemp. Stephen is the Coordinator for Help Desk Services at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Every semester I perform employee reviews for my student workers; this is an opportunity for me to give […]
06.05.2012
Christensen on disruptive innovation in higher education
Today’s Reading, Christensen on disruptive innovation in higher education, comes to us from the Changing Higher Education blog. (Clayton Christensen coined the term “disruptive innovation” in 2003, having used “disruptive technology” earlier for the same concept.) This blog post draws from a well-written white paper – Disrupting College – that describes the challenges facing higher education today, […]
05.29.2012
Why Appreciation Matters so Much
Today’s reading – “Why Appreciation Matters so Much” – comes from the pen of Tony Schwartz, President and CEO of The Energy Project and author of Be Excellent at Anything. Schwartz observes that a recent world-wide study by Towers Watson found that the single highest driver of engagement is whether or not workers feel their managers […]
05.22.2012
Wilderness Leadership – on the Job
Today’s reading “Wilderness Leadership – on the Job”comes from the pens of John Kanengieter and Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin. Kanengieter is director of leadership at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), and Rajagopal-Durbin is the school’s diversity and inclusion manager and a faculty member. NOLS is a non-profit outdoor educational school dedicated to teaching environmental ethics, technical outdoor skills, […]
05.08.2012
Bumper Stickers for Leaders
Roger Schwarz writes an occasional newsletter titled “Mindset. Behavior. Results.” In a recent edition he noted that collective wisdom is often found in unexpected places, for example, bumper stickers. Here is his article: BUMPER STICKERS FOR LEADERS I like bumper stickers. They’re brief, to the point, and often clever. Here are a few of […]
05.01.2012
The Leader’s Checklist
This past year Michael Useem’s new book “The Leader’s Checklist” was published. Professor Useem is Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The checklist has 15 leadership principles that taken together can constitute an effective playbook for leadership decisions whatever […]
04.24.2012
’No’ is the New ‘Yes:’ Four Practices to Re-prioritize Your Life
Anna Biggers, ITLP alum from University of Oklahoma, suggested today’s reading – “’No’ is the New ‘Yes:’ Four Practices to Re-prioritize Your Life”. Tony Schwartz is author of this article, which appeared in the Harvard Business Review blog last January. He is president and CDO of The Energy Project. Schwartz notes that we all have back-to-back meetings, more email […]
04.17.2012
Leading is like Conducting an Orchestra
Today’s Tuesday Reading was written by Dana Stasiak, a participant in IT Leaders 2012, as a reflection on leadership for her cohort. Dana is the manager for Web Services at Argonne National Laboratory. She writes: I was channel surfing on Sunday night after our first session and ended up on Great Performances on PBS. As it […]
04.10.2012
Value of Good Leaders
Earlier this year Arianna Huffington, author and syndicated columnist, spoke on the Penn State campus as part of their 2011-2012 Distinguished Speaker series. The centredaily.com account of the event <http://www.bit.ly/wFmdtk> is today’s reading. In her remarks, Huffington provided a number of leadership truisms that Gary Augustson, ITLP coach and former CIO of Penn State, urged me […]
04.03.2012
The Power of Pause
The Tuesday Reading today is a piece, “The Power of Pause”, by Ana Dutra which recently appeared in a Harvard Business Review blog. Dutra is CEO for Leadership and Talent Consulting and Executive Vice President, at Korn Ferry International. No leader likes to be called out as tactical, short-term oriented, or for always being in the […]