Topic: leadership-development
Our bookmarks on this topic are also at pinboard.in/u:unison/t:leadership-development/
How you think is how you lead
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 · Topics: command-and-control, leadership-development, leadership-styles, team-development
From Roger Schwarz: You’re probably undermining what you are trying to accomplish with your team – and you don’t know it. · Go to How you think is how you lead →
How unilateral control undermines team results and relationships
Tuesday, May 7, 2013 · Topics: command-and-control, leadership-development, leadership-styles, team-development
From Roger Schwarz: If your leadership team isn’t getting the results it needs, the cause may be your (and your team’s) mindset. Mindset is the set of core values and assumptions from which you operate. It is your way of seeing that shapes your thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
The research and my more than thirty years working with leaders and their teams reveal that in even moderately challenging situations virtually all leaders use a mindset that undermines team results—what I call a “unilateral control” mindset. When you use a unilateral control mindset, you try to achieve your goals by controlling the situation. You try to influence others to do what you want them to do while not being influenced by others. When you’re working with people who see things differently from you, the essence of your mindset is simple: I understand the situation, you don’t; I’m right, you’re wrong; I will win. · Go to How unilateral control undermines team results and relationships →
Paying attention to how we listen helps us be better leaders
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 · Topics: leadership-development, listening, personal-mastery
From Henna Inam: Awareness of our “filters” (the lenses through which we see the world) reduces the static in the connections we have with others. When we start to see a situation more objectively it allows us to be more emotionally intelligent in the situation, make better decisions, act from greater objectivity, and establish more genuine connections with others. Listening to how you listen is truly a transformational tool. · Go to Paying attention to how we listen helps us be better leaders →
The role of empathy in business success
Wednesday, April 3, 2013 · Topics: empathy, leadership-development
From Henna Inam at Smart Blog: One of the biggest differentiators of effective leaders I’ve observed is how they practice empathy — being able to put themselves in the shoes of others. It is a critical part of our emotional intelligence, or EQ, and unlike IQ, we can actually increase our ability to be empathetic. Studies show that those at the high levels of EQ earn $29,000 more per year than those at lower levels. But how do you actually get more empathetic? I decided to give myself an “empathy challenge.” · Go to The role of empathy in business success →
Giving up the “one leader in a room” mindset
Tuesday, December 18, 2012 · Topics: leadership-development, leadership-styles, self-organizing
From Roger Schwarz: As the name implies, when you operate from the “one leader in a room” mindset, you believe there can be only one leader in the room – or on the team – at a time: the formal team leader. If the formal leader is you, you alone are responsible for all of the team’s leadership tasks, including identifying the team’s direction and key goals, leading team meetings, and managing challenging work relationships among team members.
When you operate in this mode, you feel like you and your team members are in the same boat. Yet you alone are the boat’s designer, captain, and navigator, while the rest of the crew shows up to row. At some point on the journey you wonder, “Why aren’t they doing more?” · Go to Giving up the “one leader in a room” mindset →
My Communications Director is an idiot
Sunday, August 5, 2012 · Topics: communication, leadership-development, marketing, public-relations
From Kivi Leroux Miller: I’m friends with many nonprofit program and research directors who confide in me about their various scuffles with communications or fundraising staff in their organizations. Nothing strange there.
What I do find a little surprising is how often I will meet a program or policy director, or even an executive director, for the first time, and upon learning what I do for a living, they will say, “Ugh. Our communications director is a complete idiot.” · Go to My Communications Director is an idiot →
Peter Senge: The ecology of leadership
Sunday, August 5, 2012 · Topics: innovation, leadership-development, learning-organizations, questions, systems-thinking
From Leader to Leader Journal: In the past 5 years, corporate leaders have talked more about learning and development than in the previous 50. But the discussion inspires frustration as well as hope. Senior executives invariably want to know, “How do I build a learning organization?” It is the most frequent question I am asked, but it is the wrong question, for two reasons. First, it implies that the president or CEO can singlehandedly make changes in an organization’s genetic code. Second, it suggests that building a learning organization (and learning itself) involves a definitive formula rather than an ongoing process. · Go to Peter Senge: The ecology of leadership →
Peter Senge: The practice of innovation
Sunday, August 5, 2012 · Topics: creativity, innovation, leadership-development, org-culture
From Leader to Leader Journal: Peter Drucker has elegantly presented the three ingredients of the discipline of innovation: focus on mission, define significant results, and do rigorous assessment. But if it sounds so simple, why is it so difficult for institutions to innovate? · Go to Peter Senge: The practice of innovation →
