It’s that time of year — the holiday season — when introspection seems particularly appropriate.
Why am I here? Am I making a difference? What kind of difference do I want to make?
What will be my legacy? Do people care about me personally or what I can do for them? Continue reading
Our leadership reading, tastes and research were all over the map this past week, from influence to bias, feedback, brain science and Halloween costumes. We hope you find some food for thought here!
Leadership: Intentional Influence (Joseph Grenny, Bloomberg Businessweek)
The BIG team loves Joseph calling out leaders for not doing things that should be a normal part of their job: failing to address organizational fiefdoms, not focusing on active efforts to create behavior change, and confusing talk with influence. Continue reading
Every month, two to five people quit the small manufacturing company, heading off to a new job. Concerned with costs and time involved in the revolving door of recruiting and training, the company decided to do an employee survey to see why people were leaving.
Wages and benefits weren’t an issue. People believed they had the right tools, equipment and training to do their job. Continue reading
Developing others and ongoing learning are in our DNA here at Braithwaite, so we’re researching all the time. We see lots of worthy material while doing our work (what a delightful perk!), so we share the highlights via this weekly list — a short-cut to information you may not have the time to look up but might be interested in knowing. Enjoy!
Expanding the Leadership Equation (Ellen Van Velsor, Center for Creative Leadership)
Fascinating white paper outlining what’s happening and what’s needed to equip the next generation of leaders. Continue reading
This was a week of helping clients “make it so” - so posts about leadership action and results appealed to us. We hope these nuggets inspire you to turn a thought or a dream into reality!
If it were just about leading, would you still want to be a leader? (LeadershipNow)
Great little piece to get you thinking about defining success, purpose and your leadership legacy.
Leadership: Challenging The Status Quo (Lolly Daskal, Lead From Within) Continue reading
What is wrong with us?! Have we lost our bloody minds?
As leaders, we’ve worked long and hard to stamp out overt bias in the workplace. Then we fawn like star-struck finders of the holy leadership grail over a ridiculous Wharton School study revealing baldness to be a business advantage for males. Talk about replacing overt stereotypes with covert ones! Continue reading
The power of smiling, having a moral center and offering a “why” = leadership topics appealing to the BIG team over the last week → enjoy!
How Great Leaders Inspire Action(TED Talk by Simon Sinek)
Grab a cup of coffee or tea and listen to Simon Sinek explain his Golden Circle. As you listen to his explanation, you’ll suddenly gain clarity about why so many initiatives and change efforts fail. Learn about operating from the inside out. Listen to Simon explain why people don’t buy what you do, rather they buy the “why” because they’re doing it for themselves. Intriguing stuff. Continue reading
Leadership strengths and weaknesses, employee motivation and the whole introvert/extrovert discussion intrigued us this past week. The team at BIG wishes you a week of inspiration and connection at the intersection of the art of leadership and the science of business!
9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money (Ilya Pozin, TIME Business) Continue reading
I’m not talking about being in “management”, although that is a really tough job, too.
What I mean is leading - stepping up, making the difficult calls, doing the right thing even when nobody’s looking.
Even if you don’t have an official leadership title, I bet you’ve been called to lead as a parent, a volunteer, a mentor or a project manager.
If you wear any of these hats, no doubt you’ve been confronted with the realization at some point in our lives, we all lead. Continue reading
The division CEO and chief financial officer glared ferociously at each other after a heated exchange. Twelve others sat tensely around the conference room table, silently assessing their limited options: Do the politically expedient thing and side with the CEO, or do what’s mostly right for the business and side with the CFO?
This lose-lose outcome has it all — power gone wrong, ego overload and one-track thinking — and plays out all too frequently in businesses of all sizes.
Trapped on the dark side of leadership, some individuals get “so fixated on finding a shortcut to the goal that they may not be too particular about the means they use to reach it,” observes David C. McClelland, psychological theorist and 30-year Harvard University professor. When will leaders learn my-way-or-the-highway isn’t the only option?
Art credit: The Modern School
