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Leaders’ behaviors can be very similar to the behaviors of cats and dogs. Some constantly hover around and pull you out of your work for status updates, meetings, and side projects, while others leave you completely to your own devices and are nowhere to be found when you need them. And it can be quite frustrating to deal with either.
In the ideal meeting, all attendees participate, contributing diverse points of view and thinking together to reach new insights. But few meetings live up to this ideal, in large part because not everyone is able to effectively contribute. We recently asked employees at a large global bank a question: “When you have a contribution to make in a meeting, how often are you able to do so?” Only 35% said they felt able to make a contribution all the time. There are three segments of the workforce who are routinely overlooked: introverts, remote workers, and women. As a leader, chances are you’re not actively silencing these voices — it’s more likely that hidden biases at play. Let’s look at these biases and what you can do to mitigate their influence. Segment 1: The quiet ones The unconscious bias: Smart people think on their feet. What happens: A program manager calls a meeting to think through a resourcing issue. She summarizes the situation, shares results of a recent staffing analysis, and then tees up the discussion. This works great for extroverted thinkers (those that talk to think). But from the get-go, the introverted thinkers (those who think to talk) are at a disadvantage....
Via The Learning Factor
Lagging performance is among the most glaring indications something is awry in an organization. Then there are the quieter, less splashy but still foreboding signals: a culture of distrust, the uncomfortable undiscussables, staff disengagement, disorganization — all of which indicate a disconnect that could cost a business tremendously if not addressed. When confronted with a problem, or better yet, before it becomes a problem, leadership consultants Bob Anderson and Bill Adams recommend organizational leaders first turn inward to drive lasting change.
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Good leaders can steer a business through the nine to five, but great leaders can navigate a company into the next generation. While a good leader is content with the status quo, a truly great leader has the ability to innovate and disrupt to ensure organisations stay on the cutting edge. They go above and beyond the duty of a manager to inspire staff and build a motivated workplace. Stepping up from a good to a great leader could make a huge difference to the direction of a business and it's possible with some simple, but effective practices.
Via The Learning Factor
We talk about happiness as if it were a thing to be discovered and acquired. But happiness can never be found externally. It is not a possession to be acquired or a set of conditions, but a state of mind. The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything, but they have learned to make the best of whatever they have. The happiest leaders aren't necessarily focused on success or failure but live by a different perspective--and that outlook makes all the difference. Here's how they live.
Via The Learning Factor
A glance at today’s headlines leaves little doubt that we have entered a new era of geopolitical turbulence. Acts of terror and violence, humanitarian crises, and public health emergencies are rarely localized events. Instead, these shocks transcend borders, presenting global challenges. Just as one crisis fades, another rises to take its place. Adding further complexity, today’s enemy (unlike in that previous period of great geopolitical uncertainty, the Cold War) is often unseen or unknown.
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What stands in the way of our being more satisfied and productive at work? That’s the fundamental question we sought to answer in a survey we conducted with HBR last fall. More than 19,000 people, at all levels in companies, across a broad range of industries, have so far responded to the questions we posed. What we discovered is that people feel better and perform better and more sustainably when four basic needs are met: renewal (physical); value (emotional), focus (mental) and purpose (spiritual).
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Daniel Goleman, in his article “Leadership That Gets Results”, has identified six different leadership styles, and he believes that good leaders will adopt one of these six styles to meet the needs of different situations. None of the six leadership styles by Daniel Goleman are right or wrong – each may be appropriate depending on the specific context. Whilst one of the more empathetic styles is most likely to be needed to build long-term commitment, there will be occasions when a commanding style may need to be called upon, for example, when a rapid and decisive response is required.
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A while ago I sat down with Machiel Wetselaar & David van Dinther to create a list of innovation methodologies for a course we’re developing. Up to now we’ve gathered 71 different methodologies for implementing innovation in your organization. We are still looking for ways to categorize them, but for now we’ve based our categorization on the maturity of the organization. We’re pretty sure there are many more methodologies out there. Please drop a comment if you would like one or more methodologies included in this overview. The list is almost random. Enjoy!
Via Anthony Fouqué, Atisy Joëlle, Mark E. Deschaine, PhD
Research shows that in leaderless groups, leaders emerge by quickly synchronizing their brain waves with followers through high quality conversations. Simply put, synchrony is a neural process where the frequency and scale of brain waves of people become in sync. Verbal communication plays a large role in synchronization, especially between leaders and followers. Synchrony between leaders and followers leads to mutual understanding, cooperation, coordinated execution of tasks, and collective creativity. On the surface, brain synchrony seems easy to understand. It simply implies that people are literally on the same wavelength. Yet, at a deeper level, interpersonal synchrony involves much more. Dr. Daniel Siegel explains that “presence”, “wholeness”, and “resonance” are at the core of the ability to develop synchrony. Recent advances in brain science can help leaders learn to synchronize with followers on these deeper levels:
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Have you ever seen someone solve a Rubik’s cube in less than 40 seconds? It’s mesmerizing. Turn. Twist. Turn again. Rotate. Align. Spin. The action goes by so fast, it’s almost dizzying. How do people get so good at solving those little cubes? It’s not just the principle of “practice makes perfect.” The most avid Rubik’s cube solvers will tell you that they got really good once they understood the mathematical principles of the cube. They know how many rotations are needed to align certain blocks. They understand that the middle block never moves. They count their turns to ensure they’re turning in correct steps. In short, they know exactly how the cube functions, and how to make it work. The best leaders do almost the same thing. They understand the personality and dynamics of their team. They take the time to get to know individuals and learn their skills and strengths. And then, they use their time-tested strategies—the five phrases below—again and again, to lead the team past any obstacle and empower them to create great work in every situation. In fact, the best leaders use these five phrases repetitively because they are so successful. What are the five signature repetitive phrases of virtuoso leaders, and the one thing they’ll never say? Read on to find out.
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Being a leader is hard. Some people put themselves in a leadership role and others are there by accident or even default. It's unreasonable to expect that all leaders are naturally born. They need support and tools to be successful and bring others along. My Inc. colleagues and I have seen lots of leaders in action. Some leaders are are just getting by, but others are amazing. We have witnessed several common tools these amazing leaders use to get performance from their teams. Here are some we have seen that work consistently.
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"Power is a subject that makes many people extremely uncomfortable," Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer argues, but just because we don't like to think about power doesn't mean it's not the lifeblood of business. "Power is in fact all around...like air and water and gravity," he insists. Ignoring power, therefore, won't make it disappear any more than wishing away gravity will help you fly. Instead of sticking your head in the sand, Pfeffer suggests you get real and start thinking constructively about accumulating power. How can you do that? In the video he offers a handful of actionable (if not necessarily universally palatable) tips. .
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No matter how much the world changes, there will be timeless truths about the best way to lead others to success.
Self-made industrialist Andrew Carnegie was the wealthiest man on the planet in the early 20th century and was a student of what it takes to achieve greatness. In 1908, he met with the journalist Napoleon Hill and decided that Hill would be the vehicle for sharing his strategies with the world. Take a look at the summary.
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Welcome to the 2014 Ketchum Leadership Communication Monitor (KLCM), exploring the perceptions of over 6,500 people in 13 countries on five continents regarding effective leadership, effective communication and the intrinsic link between the two. The third annual KLCM survey shows clearly that a global leadership “crisis” stubbornly persists, as consumers continue to be disillusioned with their leaders. Looking at leaders in business, government, community service, trade/labor unions and the not-for-profit sector, only 22 percent of those surveyed feel leaders are demonstrating effective leadership – down from last year – and even fewer than that are optimistic about seeing any improvement in leadership over the coming year. The research also finds that open, transparent communication is absolutely critical to effective leadership. It is again the top-ranking attribute, with 74 percent viewing effective communication as very important to great leadership. Yet only 29 percent feel leaders communicate effectively. This gap between expectation and delivery has substantial commercial implications. Indeed, a clear majority of respondents boycotted or bought less from a company during the past 12 months due to poor leadership. Far fewer started buying or purchased more as a result of positive leadership perceptions.
Via The Learning Factor
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