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Category: Leadership (Page 16 of 19)

Creativity for Managers

20/06/2013 /

The idea that Creativity is needed only by artists and dreamers is long gone. Nowadays managers are aware that to run a business, an administration, an office a lot of skills are required: flexibility, intuition, vision, inventiveness. In one word what managers need is Creativity.

Hubert Jaoui understood that almost thirty years ago and is spending his life explaining to others what creativity is and how useful it can be.

Here is an interesting definition by Hubert Jaoui:

Creativity is neither imagination, nor the opposite of rationality: it is a multi-logical approach

A lot of interesting demonstrations of how Creativity is an essential tool for managers can be found on the site: http://www.gimca.net/, e.g. the 6 pillars of management: human behaviour, motivation, delegation, time management, creativity.

Creativity-1

image source: Mr Fish in http://loft22.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/cognitive-dissonance-over-creativity/

Vision is communicated direction

10/06/2013 /

Having a vision is not as simple as saying that you want something. Creating a vision is the process of building understanding on it.

According to the authors: “For a leader, vision is all about helping others see that bigger picture and begin to make those connections to a larger effort. As a leader, you need to focus on being the effective communicator of direction to your team.”

To learn more, read the article by E. Yaverbaum and E. Sherman.

470341923_14e8dbc101image source: Creative Commons theparadigmshifter

What does Verdi’s Otello tell us about leadership?

18/04/2013 /

In his Blog Nigel Paine talks about Verdi’s Otello and his dramatic failure as leader.
So, why has he failed?

  • He trusts the wrong persons
  • He doesn’t give attention to his team
  • He refuses to admit he might be wrong
  • He is not patient to make decisions
  • He forgets he is in a context. He doesn’t understand the importance of the external environment

Nigel Paine continues listing his top ten leadership errors.
Read the full article at: http://goo.gl/cmCv9

Image source http://leadershit.net/leader-e-leadership/

Common Leadership and Management Mistakes

16/04/2013 /

We learn from our mistakes. This is generally true.

However, there are common pitfalls managers and leaders should avoid:
  • not giving good feedback
  • not making time for their team
  • being too “hands-off”
  • being too friendly
  • failing to define goals
  • misunderstanding motivation
  • hurrying recruitment
  • not “walking the walk”, that is, not leading by example
  • not delegating effectively
  • misunderstanding their role.
The article “10 Common Leadership and Management Mistakes”
(http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/leadership-mistakes.htm), available on the Mindtools website, analyzes these mistakes and provides some suggestions on how to recognize and avoid them.
Leaderimage source: http://bit.ly/10N6mQG

How Shakespeare would run a business

11/04/2013 /

What leadership lessons may we learn from the great English playwright and poet?

In her article, published in a monthly series focusing on business and leadership lessons from prominent figures in history, Laurie Kulikowski describes the inspirational process that changed the way people looked at literature.

Here are some of the key points:

  1. be not afraid of greatness: “some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them” (Twelfth Night)
  2. maximise exposure: take an active role in your local community and pitch your business story to local media;
  3. learn from failure: no one wants to befriend failure, but if we do, we certainly don’t forget its visit anytime soon!
  4. get to know your employees, as King Henry V, disguised as a commoner, wandering among his troops to understand their readiness and their morale.

Read more on http://goo.gl/A3CWj

Firstfolio

Image Source: http://goo.gl/VtwvM

Seven leader archetypes

26/03/2013 /

The Diplomatic Courier in 2011 launched the “Top 99 Under 33 Foreign Policy Leaders,” a project that captures the impact of 99 leaders under the age of 33. The selection committee makes its evaluation on the basis of the following leader archetypes:

  • A Catalyst is from a field not typically associated with foreign policy who has had an impact on international affairs.
  • A Convener brings people together in creative ways to address a pressing international issue or enhance the foreign policy community.
  • An Influencer mobilizes people in the foreign policy community with bold new ideas.
  • An Innovator designs a new solution to a critical global challenge.
  • A Practitioner changes foreign policy from the inside through extraordinary professionalism and skill.
  • A Risk-taker takes a chance and sees it pay off.
  • A Shaper changes the public discourse on an aspect of foreign policy or raises awareness on a critical issue.

For further details:  http://www.diplomaticourier.com/special-features/top-99-under-33

youngleaders2Image source: http://www.nccp.org/youngleaders_ny.html

10 Barriers to Great Leadership

21/03/2013 /

Any growth process includes the inevitable stumbling blocks. Leadership growth is no different.

, Management Consultant in the Organization Effectiveness practice of Slalom Consulting, in the past few months, has worked with several leaders who were navigating significant new challenges in their roles.  The differences between those who managed these situations successfully and those who didn’t often showed itself in their responses to these very common blocks to leadership growth:

  1. Believing that it can’t happen to you
  2. Ignoring the usefulness of mistakes
  3. Refusing help
  4. Not asking for the right things
  5. Not letting your team do its job
  6. Lack of functional credibility
  7. Lack of leadership process credibility
  8. Not enough courage to let go of yesterday’s tools
  9. An inability to face the power dynamics of leadership
  10. A good memory. Too good

read more: http://goo.gl/uecL6

Image source: http://goo.gl/4EOw8

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