ITLP Tuesday Readings

Today's reading is an article from the May 11, 2011 issue of Knowledge@Wharton - "Leadership as the 'Norm, not the Exception'", a report on a speech at Wharton by Barry Salzberg, who became global CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited on June 1, 2011.

In his remarks, Salzberg identified ten leadership lessons for the next generation of leaders:

1. Leadership, today, needs to be "flat." Gone is the day of command and control. Gone are the dinosaur-like structures that are slow and lumbering.

2. The future is about exceptional teams and the leaders within those teams who can out-maneuver, out-manage, and out-innovate the competition.

3. The leader builds a supportive environment where everyone is expected to contribute.

4. Organizations need to be structured so people can move up, down, and sideways to meet personal needs without destroying their career.

5. Leaders, and leadership, are required at all levels of the organization.

6. The leader creates an environment where people can disagree with the boss and experience NO negative consequences.

7. Leaders must be transparent.

8. Leaders don't like surprises, even good ones.

9. "No ostriches, no elephants." "No burying your head in the sand if there's a problem, and no ignoring the elephant in the room."

10. You need a mentor. Leaders learn best from other leaders.

Lot of good advice here to think about and act on. . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 11:27 AM | Permalink

I found this interesting read "Why Leadership Programs Don't Work" by Kelly Goldsmith and Marshall Goldsmith in BNET. It's really short infomercial aimed squarely at you.

A few years ago Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan studied eight different companies with 86,000 participants, including 11,000 recognized as leaders, in executive coaching programs. Every leader focused on one to three specific areas of improvement, received feedback in a 360 process, and was asked to discuss what he/she learned with co-workers. Co-workers were also asked to assess whether this person became a more effective leader. The results:

• With no discussion of their learnings, co-workers saw no change.
• With a little discussion of learnings, co-workers saw some improvement.
• With a lot of discussion of what was being learned, the results "went through the roof."

So, if you don't do the work, its like watching Arnold Schwarzenegger lift weights and expecting to develop muscles. "To become a better leader, you must have the fire within to change, to do the actual work, and - this is the key - have the humility and courage to discuss your progress with a colleague."

So, the key variable is you, and your relationship to the people around you.

Do think seriously about discussing your work on leading with your team!

. . . . jim

NOTE: As noted in this article, you can find more information in "Leadership is a Contact Sport" which you can download from the Goldsmith site as a PDF.

Posted by Jim Hall at 11:25 AM | Permalink

One of the most consistent findings in psychology is that people behave differently when their environment changes. When we are at a place where people are quiet, say a church or a library, we're quiet; when we are at a sporting event where it's loud, we're loud.

Why then, when we try to make changes at work do we, almost always, focus on people changing rather than on changing the environment. Often, changing the environment is the easiest way to effect meaningful behavioral change.

In today's reading, an excerpt from Chip and Dan Heath's book Switch we have three examples illustrating how changing the environment can materially decrease interruptions and improve performance - in a hospital, in an airplane cockpit, and in an IT group.

Take ten minutes to read this two page excerpt and then think about how you might tweak your environment in a way that encourages the right behaviors to emerge.

Give it some thought and you'll have a new tool for your toolkit. . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 9:34 AM | Permalink

"When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity." ~ John F. Kennedy

What do you say to yourself in a hardship or crisis? Is it helpful? How do you behave during a hardship or crisis? Is it helpful?

Remember your leadership journey? Ask yourself, "Where is the opportunity?" "What are the lessons to be learned?"

Write down three things that you will practice during your next hardship or crisis. Be prepared!

Posted by Jim Hall at 4:48 PM | Permalink

Joe Urich from the University of Iowa shared this piece with his on-campus cohort last month and I thought it was worth sharing with everyone. "Lessons of Fort Sumter" was published in early April in the Wall Street Journal. The author is Bret Stephens, a columnist for the Journal.

In the short piece he distills from the battle for Sumter five important leadership lessons:

1. Listen to many opinions. Don't just listen to the loud voice, seek options.

2. Determined leadership begats devoted followership. Who wants to follow someone who is not really committed to his/her efforts.

3. Execution is critical. It really is all about getting results.

4. The leader assumes ultimate, without excuses, responsibility for the organizations future.

5. Small and temporary reversals may lay the foundation for future successes.

There they are. When you read the piece, you'll find that I left out two additional lessons. The first was "War is too important to be left to the journalists." You'll have to read the piece to learn about this reason. And, I left out the lesson "Change the subject." I don't think that is really an option.

Enjoy the read and practice the lessons. . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 9:21 AM | Permalink