Leadership and innovation articles

A New Blueprint for Meetings ~ the Involvement Edge (04/11/2012)
... Start by Making People Feel Welcome. Foyers are designed to help people make the transition from the outside world to the inner world of our homes. In a similar manner, we need to assist people in making a transition from what they have been doing into our meeting. Here are some things to consider that help people feel welcome. Pay attention to the room....

The Real Value Of Innovation (04/09/2012)
... Creative people tend to have an intense focus on their work, to get immersed in it, but they tackle diversions with just as much attention. Creative people also like to talk with other creative people and throw around ideas that lead to unexpected results. I won’t go so far as to claim that I’m a creative person, but I have my moments, and they tend to be when I’m relaxed and not actually thinking about a problem. It could be when I’m exercising, when I’m just awakening in the morning, or when I’m doing a completely unrelated activity. When you are facing what seems like an insurmountable problem and you have been working on it for some time, the best action might be to step away from it....

A leader is present in all of us (02/03/2012)
... He is solution minded and keeps the welfare of all concerned in his mind. The leader aims for excellence and "wins as though he was used to it". If he fails, he does so with grace, enjoying it as a change and learns from the experience. where do we find people like these? Do they truly exist? Of course they do, in all of us. From a student, to a housewife....

Become a Strong Leader: Throw Out The Creative Filters, and Get Buy In! (01/29/2012)
... As Albert Einstein said, Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds! Remove the Filters We have learned to layer ourselves with filters that we believe protect our professional life. With training and coaching, a leader will be able to help his team feel safe during the creative process, strip off the filters, get the best ideas, and return the creative process to the most basic. Give a child a shovel on the beach and he will create a dream castle. Give an adult a shovel and he will most likely store it in the garage. Millions of ideas have been stuffed into garages, attics, drawers, or abandoned in corners....

Change (12/29/2011)
... This will give you an opportunity to expand your job or, better still, apply for a better job that has been vacated. Keep your ear close to the ground, so you are aware of pending change. Find out how significant it will be. Determine the following: Who will be affected? How significant is the change? Is the change organizational, legal, technological, or procedural? Is the change urgent? Try to understand change in the context of the "big picture." Review the company's mission and vision on your own or with your boss....

Creativity (12/29/2011)
... With each idea, think about the benefits, drawbacks, and costs. Anticipate and find solutions to possible objections. Don't exclude any ideas by deciding in advance whether others will accept them. Concern yourself with selling the idea only as a last step. If you try to sell it before you're ready, you may inhibit your imagination and creativity....

Attitude Survey (12/28/2011)
... DURING THE SURVEY Answer all questions frankly. Do not write your name anywhere on the questionnaire if anonymity is important to you. DURING THE FEEDBACK SESSION Ask for a copy of the results so you can study them in more detail at your leisure. If the complete survey is not available for everyone, ask if you can access it somewhere in the organization. Help to keep the meeting positive....

How to handle Mistakes (12/28/2011)
... Ask yourself specifically: Does it impact others? How big is it? If it's a local mistake that doesn't affect anyone else, and you know how to fix it, do so. No need to tell the whole world. If the problem impacts others, fix it if you can and tell whoever needs to know, pointing out what you've done to fix it or what you will do. You can also suggest how you will prevent it from happening again. If you can't fix the problem, find someone who can....

Influencing People (12/22/2011)
... Wait for important opportunities to collect IOUs from people, especially if they have unique skills; specialized knowledge; "exotic" information. Your dependency on them becomes balanced by their dependency on you. Treat people as equals. Don't abuse the power that comes from a higher position in the organization. People will retaliate later....

Wearing the Mantle of Leadership (09/23/2011)
... But, as leaders, they all demonstrate some very important characteristics. As we consider these, let’s start by looking back at you.You have been put into this management position because you used intelligent thinking when making decisions. You weighted the objective facts, added in personal subjective beliefs, and took firm action on something in which you believed strongly. You thought about the values of the whole community of organizational members and recognized that this role is not just about you....

What is Leadership (09/06/2011)
... They "walk the talk." Leaders are not threatened by competence. Outstanding peers energize them. And they are quick to give credit to those who have earned it. Leaders enjoy seeing others around them increase their skills and confidence....

Creativity: Using the SCAMPER Process (09/03/2011)
... Post-it Notes have done an exceptional job of taking the basic technology of a multiple-stick product and producing different sizes, colours, shapes, and uses. PUT PRODUCTS TO OTHER USES This is a commonly used strategy. Excess newspapers can be made into fire logs; a kitchen knife can be used as a screwdriver. ELIMINATE OR ELABORATE Consider the benefits that can be derived from less use. For example, packaging is reduced if refills are used....

The Sales Leader`s Challenge (08/20/2010)
... The key is to not get endlessly stuck fighting what you or others see as an undesirable change but to instead work through it to see how you can turn it to your advantage. Denial: Why is this happening (to me)? Resistance: Whom can I blame? Acceptance: How can I make the best of this? Transition: What can I do to adapt? Performance: Where can I make a difference? Growth: When do I need to change again? Use the following questions to think about your customers and their businesses. How have your customers changed? In what ways are your customers’ needs changing? How have their customers changed? For example, how have things such as technology, information processing, communications, cultural diversity, pricing, cost, pressures, security, workforce education, competition, globalization, the economy, and the Internet affected your customers? Think of how they have affected you or your company. To what extent does the customer perceive these changes? How well has this person’s company taken advantage of those changes? What does he or she think will happen in the next year? What impact might it have on the company? In what ways has the customer responded to these changes? In what other ways can he or she respond? Is something preventing a response? If You’re Not Part of the Solution, You’re Part of the Problem Sales leaders are part of the solution because they strive to understand the customer’s business. Sales leaders become experts in their industry, their company, and their products or services....

The Three Roles of Sales Leaders (08/12/2010)
... Your customer will probably quickly see the advantages of what you offer. You may find that your company is protecting its vested interests. Some companies are receptive to new ideas, but others prefer the status quo. In the latter, you will need to do more to help your idea prevail. You can make a good case if you offer convincing data and win the support of one person at a time....

How to Prepare People for Future Work and Keep Them Involved (08/08/2010)
... It can help you with answers about effectively involving people. It can help you improve your individual ability to contribute. Collective reflection can help a whole team learn how to work together better and improve their products and services. Reflection and learning needs a deliberate decision to take a step back and look at the connections and patterns in what we have done. When we reflect, we slow down our thinking and consider what we did and why....

Should the Same People be Involved Throughout all the Work (08/07/2010)
... If you complete your planning efforts, support from the broader community may be lacking because key influencers are uninvolved or even actively hostile. As you think about whom to involve at what stage of the job, keep in mind the following suggestions: In the early stages, you want people who are visionary and creative. When you want to review work done so far, you want people who are challenging, reflective, and honest. When you need to reach consensus, you want people who are collaborative, realistic, and unselfish. When you are doing detail work, you want people who are concrete, thorough, and meticulous....

If You are a leader, are you a peacemaker (05/20/2010)
..." Is it? Does leadership bring with it conflict? Or does conflict exist and good leadership brings peace? People want to spend time with good leaders because good leaders - through their leadership - create peace. Anyone who is a parent, myself included, has seen a few conflicts. Children tend to have this uncanny ability to bring disagreements and selfish ambitions to the forefront. I didn't teach my kids to produce conflict - they did that all on their own. My job as a parent is to help my kids develop skills that cultivate peace....

About Creativity (05/05/2010)
... It comes out slowly. When I found my dog, she had been badly abused. I was walking in the countryside, and she was watching me from a mound of dirt in an old church yard where she had been dumped. She started to follow me. If I turned around, shed stop....

Whole Brain Leadership (01/20/2010)
... The side of the brain that thinks linearly, making logical, rational decisions.To the present time, we have created, trained and chosen leaders who are "well-educated manipulators of information and deployers of expertise." We have taught in our schools and in our businesses the logical, linear thinking that created the Information Age.There is now more than ample evidence to suggest an imperative for immediate change in how we train and select our leaders!In A Whole New Mind, a current New York Times and Business Week bestseller, Daniel Pink asserts that "for nearly a century, Western society in general, and American society in particular, has been dominated by a form of thinking and an approach to life that is narrowly reductive and deeply analytical." He argues that we are entering an age where the "left brain" capabilities that have powered the last century will not be enough....

Leadership (09/22/2009)
... There is a clear line between the differences of leadership skills and management skills. Managers are thought to be the budgeters, the organizers, the controllers the ants of the farm, while leaders are the charismatic, visionaries, and the ones who change the whole ant farm. A leader has the skill to remove obstacles that others see in their paths and provide the opportunity for growth, development and performance within a team. Leaders have the ability to influences others to accomplish an objective in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent. Leaders carry out this process by applying their leadership attributes, such as beliefs, values, ethics, knowledge and skills....