Tuesday Reading

One of the topics we discuss in the IT Leaders Program is giving and receiving both positive and negative feedback.  In today’s reading “Learning to Accept Criticism“, John Baldoni reinforces the importance of giving and receiving  criticism noting that they are essential leadership capabilities.  He then gives several helpful suggestions:   –  Know your facts […]

In  “Five Bad Habits to Lose on the Road to Success“,  John Baldoni highlights several bad habits — from Marshall Goldsmith’s newest book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There — that leaders need to abandon: •  Stop winning too much. We all want it our way, but sometimes it does not add value to […]

In “Total Leadership” <http://www.cio.com/article/109250?source=nlt_cioinsider>, Patricia Wallington, former CIO at Xerox, discusses a topic, conflict and confrontation, that makes most of us very uncomfortable.  She begins by noting that confrontation is a regular feature of IT.  She then asserts that IT leaders must become experts in the art of confrontation.  Her approach has seven steps —    […]

In this piece, Becoming a Change Leader, May 8, 2007 CIO  <http://www.cio.com/article/108351/Becoming_a_Change_Leader>,  Maya Townsend, founder and principal consultant of Partnering Resources, introduces four key factors which she argues are crucial to successful change initiatives: 1.  Active, committed leadership — if you are not committed why should your staff commit? 2.  A clear, compelling business (not technical) […]

Today’s reading focuses on Emotional Intelligence, a topic discussed in the leader’s program.  In this piece —  “Soft Skills for CIOs and Aspiring CIOs:  Four Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence“, or <http://tinyurl.com/29au7g>, Diann Daniel argues that soft skills and emotional intelligence are must haves for IT leaders and workers today.  As she notes and as been identified by […]

You will remember Joe Raelin as one of the authors whose papers you were assigned to read for the first workshop of the Leaders Program.  In this paper, “The ‘Bottom Line’ of leaderful practice,“ which you can download from http://www.leaderful.org/pdf/BottomLine.pdf he argues that the one thing that most makes a leader is a compassionate approach, a […]

Today’s reading the “The ‘Pull Leadership’ Manifesto” by Stever Robbins, founder and president of LeadershipDecisionworks.  This piece from the Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Archives caught my eye because of its thesis:  “We need leaders who inspire others to follow, who engender loyalty.”  Robbins calls this “pull” leadership and then goes on to identify twelve key […]

We all experience pressure, almost daily.  Sometimes the pressure is generated by the schedule and expectations we set for ourselves;  sometimes from the expectations others place on us.  Rick Brenner’s Chaco Canyon had three (short) columns last December that focused on several aspects of pressure associated with projects: Communications and Expectations  <http://www.chacocanyon.com/pointlookout/061213.shtml> The Unexpected <http://www.chacocanyon.com/pointlookout/061220.shtml> […]

This week we return to Rick Brenner’s Chaco Canyon newsletter for the column “Asking Brilliant Questions“.  Throughout the leaders program we encourage participants to ask questions:  You do that as you are being present, you do it in meetings to draw out information from your colleagues, you do that as you coach.  In this column, […]

Today, I’m sending along references to two pieces from Rick Brenner’s Chaco Canyon Consulting email newsletter on empathy. The Merriam-Webster OnLine dictionary tells us that empathy is “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having […]

David Storm, in the January 2007 issue of InformationWeek calls our attention to “Five Disruptive Technologies to Watch in 2007“.  In the piece, Storm calls our attention to RFID, Web Services, Server Virtulization, Advanced Graphics Processing, and Mobile Security, all technologies that have been available to one extent or another for a number of years.  […]

In a recent issue of Engineering Our World, the electronic newsletter of MIT’s School of Engineering, Thomas L. Magnanti, Dean of Engineering at MIT wrote about the difference that technology makes in education.  In The Promise of Technology-Enabled Education — which you will find at <http://mit.edu/engineering/enews/vol4no1-feature.html> — he discusses a recent symposium held at MIT entitled […]

In the March 3, 2007 issue of The Wall Street Journal’s Journal Report there was an interesting piece by James Kelly and Scott Nadler titled “Leading From Below.”  They note that CEOs — and I would add leaders in general — cannot change organizations on their own.  They suggest that the secret is to foster a […]

Several weeks ago I was pointed to UBS’s Knowledge Center and a short piece True Leaders Must “Walk the Floor.”  This piece reinforces the importance of communicating with staff.  It notes that many leaders have found that interacting with their staff by walking around can build relationships, help staff understand their leader’s goals, and provide […]

Today’s reading, Seven Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Top IT Talent, which comes from the January 4, 2007 issue of CIO, is just as applicable to other fields as it is to IT.   Business 2.0 reports what seems to be an amazing data point:  For every two baby boomers who retire in the next […]

The title “Talking to People is Great – Listening is Priceless” says it all.  You’ll find this piece at the Unique Business Solutions Knowledge Center, http://www.unique-solutionsinc.com/knowledge/article_20061004_105.html.    Enjoy………………jim

Today’s reading is the Work-Life Balance column from the December 19, 2006 issue of The Economist.  The column, which can be found at,  http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=8450071 has two short notes:  “Consumer technologies are invading corporate computing”  and “Executive toys.” In these pieces, the question is raised as to whether it is time to begin using publicly available web […]

Happy New Year!  I trust that you successfully rang out the old and in the new, perhaps made some resolutions (or goals) for the year, and are now ready to address what is before you with new energy and excitement.  Today’s reading comes from Rick Brenner of Chaco Canyon Consulting.  Rick notes that throughout the […]

It’s the day after Christmas and many of you are still on holiday.  However, I thought I’d send a quick note along. We have all learned about the importance of asking the “right” questions, questions that help us get at underlying issues, questions that help us think, and questions that help others move issues forward.  […]

Today, we welcome the participants in Group VI of the IT Leaders Program who are starting their first workshop.  Welcome to the Tuesday Readings, gleanings from my readings that I hope you might find interesting, provocative, and otherwise useful. Today’s reading is a review of Eric Bonabeau’s “Hunch Engine” which appeared in a recent Technology […]