Management-Leadership Articles
Managing Effective Meetings: A Powerful Tool for Leaders
Posted by: | CommentsAnyone can hold a meeting. Forming a work group and conducting a productive meeting, however, is a greater challenge. This article has tips for meetings that get results. READ ARTICLE
Managing Change through Small Group Connections
Posted by: | CommentsDo you want your future to be a repeat of your past? NO! You want it to be better and different. The question is, “How do I create a future distinct from the past?” The answer requires… a shift in thinking, NOT a shift in action. READ ARTICLE
Managing & Leading a New Team
Posted by: | CommentsA client sent me an email letting me know he was going to be taking over responsibility for a different team – entirely new team for him. He asked if I had any tips for the situation. It occurred to me that many managers face this same situation and it might be helpful to discuss.
The Framework for Leadership™ is a great tool for that first meeting of the team (as well as every one after that). That first meeting is a great opportunity to establish the context for how you want to work with them, not so much with your words, but with your specific actions and behaviors. READ ARTICLE
Making Leadership Simple by Understanding Yourself and Others
Posted by: | CommentsI was working with a leadership development team … with some of our self-awareness assessments, and it brought back memories of my Hewlett-Packard days. HP always did a lot of management and leadership training, for which I am grateful. But of all the classes I attended over twelve years, THE most valuable was the one related to “communicating with style,” where style refers to our behavioral style. It could have also been accurately called “leading with style.” …It has served me in many different situations to better relate to people whose styles are very different than mine. It definitely contributes to making leadership simple. READ ARTICLE
Leading Change without Authority, Part II
Posted by: | CommentsHow to deal with aspects of change.
How do you accomplish a major change initiative when you have authority over few, if any, of the stakeholders involved? Whether you’re in materials handling, supply chain, IT consulting, product management or other roles that have more responsibility than authority, this is a real issue for you. READ ARTICLE
Leading Change without Authority, Part I
Posted by: | CommentsRecently I had the pleasure of presenting the opening keynote address for the Supply Chain Council annual conference in Philadelphia. In this talk, I did an informal survey. The extreme response surprised me. Literally 100% of the nearly 300 people who raised their hand indicated that they did not have direct authority over the people who were needed to accomplish their supply chain improvement goals. While that might be an extreme situation, it is quite common for managers responsible for major change initiatives to feel limited in their authority, even if they have a formal charter. READ ARTICLE
Leadership during Chaos
Posted by: | CommentsI was waiting for my flight from Richmond, Virginia last monthafter presenting “Leadership Made Simple” to 150 managers of a large company headquartered there. That is when I experienced impressive leadership in the midst of chaos.
The entire air travel system was in chaos, and there was a line of dozens of people waiting to talk with Michael Quintel, the United gate manager. Every person needed to share their problem – concerned about connections mostly – with a gate agent who really had little or no control over anything. READ MORE
Leadership & Judgment – Don’t Be Too Hasty!
Posted by: | CommentsI had an experience last month of how easy it is to judge circumstances as good or bad – yet we might be totally wrong. In our leadership roles, this quick judgment can limit our ability to “hear” feedback and different perspectives. This lack of hearing or really understanding someone can then have a huge impact on the quality of our decisions. READ ARTICLE
Ignore Dissidence at Your Own Peril
Posted by: | CommentsI want to focus on one element of leadership of the many that come from that letter. It is the importance of being open to other perspectives. If looked at openly, dissidence, or differences of opinion, can be valuable. They can be disastrous if ignored. READ ARTICLE
Discovering the Leader Within
Posted by: | CommentsThe people in the audience are veterans of organizational change. They’ve fought hard to implement TQM, re-engineering, team building, empowerment or other programs of organizational renewal. But despite their best efforts, the programs have fallen short of intended goals and objectives. Something was missing… READ ARTICLE