Books on leadership, management and associated subjects abound. Jim Stroup has a great post on the dangers of buying into the books written by academics. Jim points out that many academics do do valuable work,
“But when you pick up a book by an academic, look for a sense that the author feels he or she is examining a species of being (you and me) that is not meaningfully self-aware. Such an author may interact with us while conducting research, but will not assign any validity to our own assessments of what we do or why. We are expected to cede …read more

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Continuing last weeks conversation about change based on IBM’s The Enterprise of the Future.
Let’s start with the fact that change isn’t easy and well-managed change is even more difficult.
“CEO s rate their ability to manage change 22 percent lower than their expected need for it — a “change gap” that has nearly tripled since 2006. While the number of companies successfully managing change has increased slightly, the number reporting limited or no success has risen by 60 percent.”
The problem isn’t just change per se, but

the speed of change;
relentlessness of change; and …read more

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A week ago I brought IBM’s The Enterprise of the Future  to your attention and said I’d be discussing it in the future, but there’s so much material in the three studies that I decided to make it a Saturday staple for awhile.
Additionally, if you or someone you know, would like to provide a guest post based on or related to any of the three IBM studies (CEO, CFO and HR) I would love to have them.
In the Global CEO Study five critical traits needed for success were identified through conversations with …read more

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Innovation, like leadership, is grounded in MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™)—it’s who you are and how you think, not just what you do.
With innovative MAP it’s the ‘M’ that asks ‘why not’ instead of ‘why’. It’s the ‘A’ that looks for ramifications such as the fun factor (see yesterday’s post) and it’s the ‘P’ that looks at who benefits and how.
Together they work to find the most creative ways to address markets and processes.
But the environmental and societal problems today means MAP needs also to ask “who is hurt and how?”
When potential harm is …read more

Post from Leadership Turn Image credit: paul_everett82
In the Seeds of Leadership Ken Flowers says,
When asked about key leadership traits, I respond with characteristics such as initiative, confidence, big-picture thinking, and pride of ownership. Then I realize that my list describes how individuals approach their personal efforts… I think these traits may be the seeds of leadership skills; fundamental kernels of approach that engender others to want to follow someone.
Ken’s seed analogy is a good one.
Leading isn’t a position or even something you do, it’s who you are and who you are is determined by what I call MAP (mindset, …read more