The Secrets of great groups

Personal leadership is one of the most studied topics in American life. Indeed, I have devoted a big chunk of my professional life to better understanding its workings. Far less studied -- and perhaps more important -- is group leadership. The disparity of interest in those two realms of leadership is logical, given the strong individualist bent of American culture. But the more I look at the history of business, government, the arts, and the sciences, the clearer it is that few great accomplishments are ever the work of a single individual.

Article continues

leadership quote

"Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

More quotations

The Myth of "Elegant Reasoning"

Great leaders create great strategies, right?

Not so.

The reality is that compelling strategies are seldom created but rather discovered and enhanced by drawing on the shared experiences of many.

(more...)

Leadership Success Tip

Leadership is a social function. It is the ability to make people listen to you, follow you, and respect you in the process. Respect cannot be demanded – it must be earned. Therefore, the more wisely and effectively you practise interpersonal skills, the more respect you will win.

Analyticals don't rule

(But They Do Ask Questions)

ANALYTICALS: GOOD TO THE LAST OBJECTION

Two questions.

Question #1: When was the last time you sat down and listed all the things that people suspect or misunderstand about your organization?

Question #2: Do you depend on statistics to make your case? Maybe you're keen to send out an annual appeal letter lavishly buttered with service stats? "Our dedicated staff of eight plus our 27 volunteers delivered 1,892 evening meals to 1,230 addresses in six counties, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year." The McDonald's approach: 22 trillion served.

Read the whole article

Wikipedia in Pinstripes

Companies interested in tapping into the shared expertise of their workers—the wisdom of crowds writ for business—are looking towards models such as Wikipedia that encourage collaboration.

Can Wikipedia work in pinstripes?

Harvard Business School professor Andy McAfee has his doubts that a corporate encyclopedia would have much value. But the underlying wiki technology—basically an electronic document and repository where participants can throw out ideas, comment on the work of others, and share documents—has more promise.

McAfee and collaborator professor Karim R. Lakhani discuss their research into wikis and other collaboration tools for the enterprise.

Read the whole article: How wikipedia works

Quote for the week

"An empowered organization is one in which individuals have the knowledge, skill, desire, and opportunity to personally succeed in a way that leads to collective organizational success."

--Stephen R. Covey

More quotations at the Pivotal quotations pages

Leading in Times of Transition

12 Leader Competencies: What It Takes In Times of Transition

For many leaders, managing the business and addressing the needs of workers are at odds. They ask, "How can I make the tough decisions if I have to focus on the emotions and concerns of my employees?" The answer isn't about choosing either the people or the business, according to CCL's Kerry Bunker. Instead, the answer lies in being authentic and building trust.

Article continues

Ego in leaderhip

Are You an Egomaniac? Guy Kawasaki's Ten Questions with Steven Smith

Steven Smith has spent the past ten years exploring how great leaders use ego differently than everyone else—how they work, think, collaborate, and who they are.

Read on ...

Just for fun - Dilbert's words of Wisdom n the corporate world

Dilbert's Words of Wisdom

Poor Dilbert (the cartoon character, for any who aren't familiar with him) has a cynical attitude, but often knows exactly what's going on and where the truth is buried.

Here are a few nuggets of wisdom from the Corporate World. Enjoy!

I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow is not looking good either.

I love deadlines. I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.

Accept that some days you are the pigeon and some days the statue.

Needing someone is like needing a parachute. If he isn't there the first time, chances are you won't be needing him again.

On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key.

Don't be irreplaceable -- if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you did before.

When bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.

If at first you don't succeed, try again. Then quit, and remove all evidence that you tried. No use being a damn fool about it.

You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.

If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done.

When you don't know what to do, walk fast, carry a clipboard, and look worried.

You can find this item and lots more at the Pivotal Fun pages

Six Sanity-Saving Scenarios to Turn a Massive Breakdown into a Powerful Business Breakthrough

There I was. Depressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed. Despite my best efforts to have a smooth running ship and organize my event, I realized I had a significant breakdown in my process. I admit, it wasn’t the end of the world, but come on, I teach this stuff!

It was one week before we went live on our new program, we were preparing the workbooks for production, and I realized, no one ordered the right tabs! Yikes!

It got me thinking how a client of mine had shared a great story about their direct mail marketing campaign. A lot of money had been invested in buying a list of qualified candidates. But every step of the way there was breakdown in the process – the guy who formatted the list didn’t set it up right, the assistant didn’t have the proper envelopes, and they had no postage when they needed it. My client laughed as he told me this, but I knew he was frustrated!

Well, I’ve learned over the years that a breakdown means that something very valuable is happening – I have new insight into how I can improve my process, my attitude, or my belief so that problem never happens again.

Let’s look at a few examples of how breakdowns can occur in our business or life.

Read the whole article

Overcoming shyness to become an excellent leader

"Don't let timidity stop you from being an excellent leader. Get over your shyness and get your company on the path to success."

People skills are so important in management, whether you are managing a business or a community organisation. As usual Stever Robbins has the problem and its solution in a nutshell ...

"Q: I am very shy, but very ambitious. I started a company and am up to four employees. I spend much of my time in my office because it makes me uncomfortable to spend too much time being social and having meaningless conversations. I don't think this is a good character trait. How can I become more comfortable around people?

A: Bravo for addressing this now! As your company grows, people will look to you for leadership. Literally. They'll watch how you act on a day-to-day basis and will adjust their tone accordingly. Conversation from the boss, even if it's idle chit-chat, isn't meaningless. It creates culture and lets people know how to respond.

Here's one thing I can guarantee: If you stay in your office, they won't think you're shy."

Read the whole article

Hot Auction Prizes or Only In America!

Our friends from the US group Auctionpay (who kindly brought us the charity auction kit!) are reporting on the very latest hot auction items that are bringing in the big bucks at charity functions around the States.

And well the new 'trends' are eye openers!

According to the Auctionpay clients it seems the hottest items this year were medical services.

Raising the Bar: The Role of 'Social Information' in Charitable Giving

Suppose you work at an organization -- like a public radio station or public library -- that is about to launch a fund-raising drive to help cover operating expenses. How would you structure that drive? Are there ways to increase the amount of money that individual donors commit?

Wharton operations and information management professor Rachel Croson and a co-author set out to answer this question by examining the influence of social information on contribution behavior.

Their goal was to find out whether donors to a public radio station will give more money if they are told the amount of another donor's contribution.

The researchers present their findings in a paper entitled, "Field Experiments in Charitable Contributions: The Impact of Social Influence on the Voluntary Provision of Public Goods."

Read the whole article

More on fundraising

When leadership becomes a quest

[From the ezine of Leadership Wired]

The head of one of the nation's largest credit card issuers learned many lessons in a previous career as a management consultant that he now has the opportunity to apply in his own company.

Richard Fairbank, the chairman, president and CEO of Capital One Financial, shared some of these principles at a recent talk at the Wharton School (of the University of Pennsylvania). Knowledge@Wharton, the b-school's bi-weekly online resource, provided the following highlights in an article titled When Leadership Becomes a Quest.

People are your business's most important asset. "You can't find anybody in corporate America who doesn't agree with this, but their actions are inconsistent with that statement," Fairbank told his audience. An important part of a CEO's job—as well as that of any other leader—is recruiting and motivating employees.

Cast a compelling vision, but don't allow your desire to overshadow your humanity. People are more likely to work hard for and cooperate with leaders who are authentic. Fairbank says this involves "being vulnerable, being honest and showing your weaknesses as well as your bold dream."

Success isn't about an impressive title or large paycheck. Rather, "It's about having a dream, a quest," Fairbank said. "[My father] used to say that, 'It doesn't matter how big the quest is. What matters is how pure the quest is. You can own your own success by virtue of defining it as a quest.'"

People who work in a specific industry often don't see, or respond to, the changes taking place around them, according to Richard Fairbank, chairman, president and CEO of Capital One Financial. That's because the industry's conventional wisdom is so embedded in their brains that they don't notice how stale it has become. "There's an old Will Rogers saying that sums it up," said Fairbank, who gave a talk on leadership this fall at Wharton. "It ain't what he don't know that scares me. It's what he knows that just ain't so."

Read more of the article Registration is free.

The role of the newsletter in your fundraising

Steve Hitchcock discusses the role of the newsletter in your organization's fundraising:
"Publishing a newsletter at least four times a year is essential if your organization is serious about raising money through the mail. Even with web pages and on-line newsletters, almost all of those who send contributions to nonprofit groups prefer -- desire -- to receive a paper newsletter in the mail.

Your newsletter doesn't have to be fancy. In fact, your donors will appreciate a simple, easy-to-read publication. The advantage of a four-page newsletter (or eight-pages with lots of photos) is that your donors will read it right away. Anything more substantial and they'll set it aside to read later. And you know what happens then."
Read the whole article

Selecting the Best Manager

When filling a management position, should you promote from within or hire an outsider?

Our expert weighs the pros and cons.

Hiring management-level employees can often be a daunting task. Of course, the major challenge is to select the individual who'll best fit into both the position and your business's culture. Before considering any candidates, however, your first decision is to determine whether you should promote internally or hire externally.

This article presents the pros and cons of each choice.

There are five good reasons why you might want to consider hiring an internal candidate.

First, it sets a precedent and second, it's good for morale. Employees are often very pleased when they see that "one of their own" has been promoted to a management-level position. And when morale goes up, productivity most often follows, especially when the employees like or respect the newly promoted individual.
Article continues

Meeting Success Tip

You can make use of confrontation. Turn it around. Approach it without apologies, avoid emotional involvement and use facts. Then turn it into a joint problem solving exercise.

More on meeting success.

Don't allow phones in a meeting room

[From Robyn Pearce]

A very large international IT company asked for a course on 'How to run effective meetings'. It was the weirdest session I've ever run; a brilliant example of how not to run meetings. The trouble was, the CEO had a different work ethic to the rest of the company.

She'd been sent to Australia from the States to do the job, and had no family in the country. Her work was her life and she expected her managers to behave in the same way.

The session was a bun fight! People came and went like yoyos, phones rang constantly, and although everyone had chosen to come, the activities of a number of the group were so (unintentionally) disruptive that it minimised the learning
of the rest.

Article continues

Look out Below

On April 14, 1912, a luxury ocean liner on its maiden voyage struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic and sank within hours, sending some 1,500 people to cold, watery graves.

The Titanic tragedy has been memorialised and analysed in movies, books and historical exhibits.

As anyone who saw James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster movie about this event can attest, the story is full of great human drama. From a leadership perspective, however, what really interests me is the iceberg.

Article continues

Leadership success tip

We must always be alert to the problems team members may cause, and their weaknesses. But the strength of the team and its leader will be based on the ability to also see the best value in each other. We must not waste that value. And as individuals, we will always rise to the best value people see in us.

For free articles on Leadership, visit the Pivotal Leadership pages

Pivotal Leadership Point

On the eve of his first inauguration, George Washington is reported to have said "Integrity and firmness are all I can promise."

Before you can have integrity, you must have firm values. It is important that you establish a basis of conduct from which to operate. Without a firm knowledge of what to you is right, and what to you is wrong, you will be indecisive in leadership situations. You must have a clear-cut standard of behaviour to guide your thought and actions in order to hold firmly to your integrity.

Marketing - Do People Really Care How Long You've Been in Business?

Some marketing consultants talk about how you should always stress benefits, and never talk about features … and how you should always focus on the customer, and never on the company.
But is that always true? Of course not. For instance, the number of years you’ve been in business is a feature – a fact about the company. Yet prospects care how long you’ve been in business -- and your longevity can help close the sale.
Why?
Read on ...

Meeting Success Tip

If you want everyone's opinion, take note of those who have said nothing. When everyone is quiet, ask those people for their ideas.

Learn from our free set of tips on Using an agenda for meeting success. Ask for them now.

Blake Mouton Managerial GridBalancing Task - and People-Oriented Leadership

When your boss puts you in charge of organizing the company Christmas party, what do you do first? Do you develop a time line and start assigning tasks or do you think about who would prefer to do what and try to schedule around their needs?

When the planning starts to fall behind schedule, what is your first reaction? Do you chase everyone to get back on track, or do you ease off a bit recognizing that everyone is busy just doing his/her job, let alone the extra tasks you’ve assigned?

Your answers to these types of questions can reveal a great deal about your personal leadership style. Some leaders are very task-oriented; they simply want to get things done. Others are very people-oriented; they want people to be happy. And others are a combination of the two.

If you prefer to lead by setting and enforcing tight schedules, you tend to be more production-oriented (or task-oriented). If you make people your priority and try to accommodate employee needs, then you’re more people-oriented ...

Read on ...

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t

by Jim Collins
Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time.

They finally settled on 11–including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo–and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success.

Making the transition from good to great doesn’t require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner.

Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider.

Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. –Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly

After establishing a definition of a good-to-great transition that involves a 10-year fallow period followed by 15 years of increased profits, Collins’s crew combed through every company that has made the Fortune 500 (approximately 1,400) and found 11 that met their criteria, including Walgreens, Kimberly Clark and Circuit City.

At the heart of the findings about these companies’ stellar successes is what Collins calls the Hedgehog Concept, a product or service that leads a company to outshine all worldwide competitors, that drives a company’s economic engine and that a company is passionate about.

While the companies that achieved greatness were all in different industries, each engaged in versions of Collins’s strategies. While some of the overall findings are counterintuitive (e.g., the most effective leaders are humble and strong-willed rather than outgoing), many of Collins’s perspectives on running a business are amazingly simple and commonsense.

This is not to suggest, however, that executives at all levels wouldn’t benefit from reading this book; after all, only 11 companies managed to figure out how to change their B grade to an A on their own.

Find in a library
Find in an Australian Library
Try Amazon

GOOD THINKING

If you watched the swimming events at the ... Olympics last summer, you probably observed the incredible focus the medalists demonstrated.

Sure, they're strong and fast. But when hundredths - maybe even thousandths - of a second are all that separate the winners from the losers, it's obvious that something besides strength and speed is at work.

A comment by Flip Darr, a former collegiate swimming coach who played a part in training eight Olympic medallists, sheds some light on what that critical ingredient might be.

"I felt in my coaching career that if I would work on [the swimmers'] head[s], their bodies would come along," he said. "A lot of coaches work on their bodies and then at the last moment try to do their heads. The thing is, if they are working with their heads all the time, and working with their head over the body, mind over matter, they will have more confidence when they walk up to the block."

What a great illustration of the value of good thinking.

Athletic ability is important, but preparing for the biggest race of one's life is as much mental as it is physical - if not more so.

As Bill MacCartney, the former head football coach at the University of Colorado, once told me, "Mental is to physical what four is to one."

That's a powerful argument in the case for good thinking - on the football field, as well as in your office at work. The specific thoughts that increase your effectiveness as a leader might not be the same as those required for an Olympic medal, but the overall commitment to thinking is identical.

Click here to read the complete article