Leadership Lessons for Women
Check out the great post by my buddy Anne.. It is a great message to parents of those who will one day grow up to be women.. Heck.. it is a great post for parents of those who will grow up to be men. Anne does a remarkable job of not only identifying key atributes of success for women, but in telling real life examples of how she and her siblings were schooled by her parents in these competencies.
Posted at 04:44PM Feb 23, 2007 by mowen in General |
The Rewards of Connecting
I just reread Malcolm Gladwell original article on Lois Weisberg.. just for the fun of it. It is a must read.. no it is a must reread. Every time I read it, I take away a new idea. This read I came away with the motivation of a connector. I am convinced that Lois is overwhelmed with the need to take care of others. She is not just connecting to people because she wants to have social power.. she does it because she is geniunely concerned about the well being of others. This concern, leads her to peoples doorsteps and to help them get jobs and find friends, etc... This concern is what drives her to connect and in turn, it results in an uncanny loyality that few leaders in Chicago can claim. Read the article, trust me, you want to learn about Lois.
Posted at 03:57PM Feb 23, 2007 by mowen in Leading Teams & Coaching |
Why Change Fails
John Kotter, perhaps the leading expert on organizational change, has a new article in Harvard Business Journal. If your familiar with Kotter's work, he has articulated an eight step process for transforming the organization. In this article, he highlights the key errors leaders make. His article follows his model ranking the order of errors in a linear manner in line with what he teaches, but I found myself asking the question which of these are the common errors. If I had to pick three I see the most, which three woudl it be. First, here are the errors:
Error 1 - Not establising a great sense of urgency.
This happens alot in companies. Someone knows we should make a change, but they don't communicate the whys of it to masses. It results in a top down approach. Just DO IT. Never really works very well. But many times, changes come late in the game. Most of the organization knows there are changes needed. So this one might not make my top 3.
Error 2 - Not creating a powerful enough guiding coalition
This may be my favorite for the most often made mistake. Oh, leaders create guiding coalitions, they just rarely use the right criteria for who should be on them. The real leaders, movers and shakers are often not picked. I have heard lots of reasons. Here are two of the most common: "We need all divisions, units represented." or "You always pick the same people." The last one is a tough one, but the truth is, every organization has a group of informal leaders in the masses.. and they are the key to successful change.
Error 3 - Lacking Vision
This is not the case very often. I have found that lots of organizations work hard to figure out what changes to make. The problem isn't that they don't have a vision.. the problem is often.. well Kotter's Error 4..
Error 4 - Undercommunicating the Vision by a Factor of Ten.
This is a biggy - Enough Said. or maybe not said :)
Error 5 - Removing Obstacles
This one often takes courage. The obtacle could be a person in the leadership or it could be the organizational strucuture. But leaders have to step up here. Often personal risk becomes the limiting factor.
Error 6 - Not Systmatically Planning for, and Creating Short-Term wins
I like this one. This is maybe the best part of leading change. When you get that short team (meanginful) win.. well you know things are going to happen. I don't think this is a biggy. Given the mood of business today.. Want it now! Fast.. Most leaders have a short term goal mentality.
Error 7 - Declaring Victory Too Soon
We have an expectation that change happens fast (Thank you Gladwell). And maybe the moment we recognize change makes us feel it happens fast, but large scale organizational change happens over a long period of many years. Large ships do not turn on a dime and if they try.. well.. it is not very dry on board. or safe.
Error 8 - Not anchoring changes in the corporation culture
I am not sure of how well we do on this one. I think once you get to this level, most often, your on the down hill. For example, back in the late 80s, I helped my own organization adopt e-mail and technology. Once we had made the change, 95% of our leaders read their own mail. We were able to tell everyone how much money we were saving and that we were communicating more frequently. It became an expectation that everyone hired will read their own e-mail. We hired administrators from other land grants.. they all came in and were expected to read their own e-mail. What anchored this.. A top leader who said, if you don't read your e-mail and I send you a request, you will be held accountable. This be came our culture.
So what is the bottom line. If I were to pick the most common ones.. It would be 2,4 & 5. You might pick others and they are all important, but I think my three are where we trip ourselves into failure.
Posted at 06:35AM Feb 22, 2007 by mowen in General |
Jeff Hawkins
Check out Jeff Hawkins' latest presentation on google. Although Hawkins is best know for creating the palm and treo... his real passion is brain research. He is trying to create a intellegent computer patterned after the real biological systems in the brain. If your interested in how the brain works.. and even more about technology, you might find it as interesting as I do.
Posted at 08:16AM Feb 21, 2007 by mowen in General | Comments[1]
Attendr - Social Networking Experiment
In alignment with my pursuit of social networking knowledge.. I would like to ask for your help. I am exploring the practical application of social networking sites. One I have recently been playing with is attendr. It allows a group to map themselves and also create connections. I am inviting you to the lead2020 attendr page. It's a way for everyone going to lead2020 to learn about the other people that read this blog. It is a small group, but it will give me a chance to see how this tool could be useful with a larger group. Check it out here and add yourself:
http://attendr.com/lead2020
If you know of other great social networking sites.. please respond to this blog and let us all know about them. Thanks,
Posted at 03:17PM Feb 19, 2007 by mowen in General |
Carnegie's Keys to Social Network
Social Networking is the "rage" right now. Some of this might be attributed to the Internet and sites like My Space and Second Life. You could also suggest that Gladwell's book on social power, "The Tipping Point" has added to the emphasis on building strong social networks. So, you might find it interesting that this is really nothing new. In fact, Dale Carnegie's first course has lots on social networking.. and it was so successful in 1916, that began training official "Dale Carnegie Course Instructors." Here are six lessons from Carnegie on building a stronger relationship with others that fit right into today's discussions:
- Become Genuinely Interested in Other People
- Be a Good Listerner
- Encourage others to talk about themselves
- Let the other person do a great deal of the talking
- Talk in terms of the other person's interest
- Give honest and sincere appreciation
Posted at 06:18PM Feb 18, 2007 by mowen in General |
Blue's Clues for Success
Anyone with small child should know what Blue's Clues is. But most don't know that Blue's Clue changed how we watch TV today. In fact, you could argue that American Idol and other shows that ask us to vote are a product of a path Blue's Clue created. Blue's Clue made TV different. It was the first children's show that sought to interact with the viewer. The host would actually; talk directly to the child watching. This had never been tried, but the creators of the show had studied advertising and vehicles such as the Publishers Clearing House competitions. Seems these types of advertising resulted in higher participantion.. sales. To realize the impact of this approach, ask yourself if you know who Ferris Bueller is? It could be considered the adult version of Blue's Clues. Interactivity allowed Blues Clues to increase attention (and thus advertising dollars) to great heights!
There are other lessons to be learned from this show. What else did they do to make Blue's Clues the Top Children's Show. They had a good brand. The were focused.. Here is there definition of how they branded the show:
"When you are crystal clear about who and what you want to be in the mind of your customer, and you manage every detail of your business so that customers see you as being in a class of your own, you will have branded your product."
Posted at 06:43AM Feb 13, 2007 by mowen in General |
Top Five Derailers
Based on Research into leadership success by Byham of DDI, Hogan and Hogan, and Others..
The top five derailers are:
- Approval Dependance or the need to have praise or reassurance from others, especially those higher than you in the organization.
- Argumentative - A skeptical, tense, and perhaps suspicious nature. Often focusing on one's own interests.
- Arrogant - Overly self-assured or confident. Results in poor listening and dismissal of feedback
- Attention Seeking - A gregarious and persuasive person who becomes melodramatic and excessively self-promoting.
- Avoidant - Pleasant and cooperative, but tends to be preoccupied with their own agenda. May address issues in an indirect manner and can be percieved as manipulative.
Posted at 07:55PM Feb 12, 2007 by mowen in General |
Finding Innovation
1st- sorry to be gone so long.. new role, lots of more work, just getting it all back in balance.. so here is my first post of 2007. My new years resolution.. you ask? To stay true to my value system.. no matter how hard.. :) now here's some knowledge...
Gallup published an excellent online piece on the drivers of innovation.. They have some great articles.. but they charge for them, so this is in no way an endorsement! Anyway, the article was all about how you drive innovation. The NUMBER ONE driver was FINDING AND FOSTERING TALENT! What an interesting concept.. :)
Ask yourself the question.. do we really foster talent in our employees.. Think about it. Most organizations spend huge amounts of time and money on lots of other stuff.. good recruitment and employee development is sometimes an afterthought. And even worse.. during bad ecomomic times, most companies downsize the HR and training functions first. Sure.. "we don't have money to do as many recruitment trips this year.. lets cut back." If you supervise people.. when is the last time you fostered their developent? payed for a workshop? encouraged them to try something new that might develop them? We spend lots of time keeping employees awar from their passions too often. And the recruitment is a scary thing. My own research on supervisors shows that recruitment is something they overwhelming rank themselves low on. We all hate filling a vacancy.. when in fact, it is one of greatest opportunities to DRIVE INNOVATION!
Posted at 08:05PM Feb 08, 2007 by mowen in General |