3590 Posts Found

Leaders have to learn and practice new management techniques to overcome the habits that could be holding them back.

Content: Article | Author: Jean-François Manzoni | Source: INSEAD Knowledge | Subjects: Education, Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

While many executives acknowledge the need for leaders at every level of the organization, they rarely manage the enterprise as if those leaders existed. They fall into a trap that has become embedded in our language; they confuse rank with leadership. The belief that the leaders are only those with executive titles and corner offices serves to reinforce the lack of initiative, enterprise, and entrepreneurship … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter Senge | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior

It’s easy to bash corporate hierarchy. Hierarchical authority as it has traditionally functioned is the authority of compliance—and compliance won’t get you far in today’s fluid, fickle marketplace. But hierarchy still has important functions, especially if we can learn to recognize its limitations and to adapt it to the changing nature of leadership.

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter Senge | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

People tend to internalize an organization’s culture, which for senior managers can mean internalizing a hierarchical culture of compliance rather than an inclusive culture of shared learning. So the people who will have the most difficulty in changing may be the most senior people, for two reasons: they’ve been around the longest, and they have been selected by the system as exemplars of what the … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter Senge | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Change Management, Organizational Behavior

Tricky problems must be shaped before they can be solved. To start that process, and stimulate novel thinking, leaders should look through multiple lenses.

Content: Article | Authors: Mihnea Moldoveanu, Olivier Leclerc | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Productivity / Work Tips

The leader’s first job is to be a missionary, to remind people what is special about them and their institutions. Second it is to set up the infrastructure for that to happen—not the superstructure, not to take the actual decisions, but to set the support systems, the people in place. The two go together; it’s no good having a brilliant strategy and structure and great … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Handy | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Organizational Behavior, Strategy

The interesting thing about organizations is that they can make the assumption that they’re never going to die. And the reason that you stay immortal is you have discovered what’s unique about you. The job of the leader is to work that out. To express it. Very few leaders succeed in doing this. I ask a lot of leaders of organizations what it’s all about. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Handy | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Mission, Organizational Behavior

In new businesses, the start-up group—which may be 10, 20, 50 people—has a psychological stake and often a financial stake in the business. These people use what I describe as the twin hierarchy approach. That is, there is the hierarchy of status—though not more than three or four levels. You find this in professional organizations, with senior partners, ordinary partners, and associates who would like … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Charles Handy | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Cultures develop myths when they can’t rely on existing knowledge to explain the world around them. They are developed and passed down in an effort to explain why certain mysterious events occur, or to affirm how we should behave and think. Creativity is no different. These myths were prevalent almost everywhere I looked—everywhere except in the most innovative companies and people. If we want to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: David Burkus | Source: ChangeThis | Subjects: Innovation, Organizational Behavior

I learned from Peter J. Gomes that people burn out less from a lack of energy than from a lack of a sense of purpose.

Content: Quotation | Author: Taylor Bodman | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Motivation, Organizational Behavior

The cofounder of unconscious thought theory explains how taking a break and distracting the mind can lead to higher-quality decision making.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Ken Favaro, Loran Nordgren | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Demographics, Management, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development, Productivity / Work Tips

There are two kinds of power in the world: organized money and organized people.

Content: Quotation | Subject: Power / Authority

Smart organizations ignore the urgent. Smart organizations understand that important issues are the ones to deal with. If you focus on the important stuff, the urgent will take care of itself. A key corollary to this principle is the idea that if you don’t have the time to do it right, there’s no way in the world you’ll find the time to do it over. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Seth Godin | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Attention, Decision Making, Management, Personal Development, Time Management

In many organizations, employees know more about their work than their managers. This reality should force organizations that still cling to the old, top-down style of managing to recognize that many employees today are very capable of managing themselves. This author explains the “Why” and “How” of a new style of managing for today.

Content: Article | Author: Mitch McCrimmon, Ph.D. | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

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Superstition is merely the confusion of correlation and causality. Any human (in fact, any animal) tends to repeat behavior that is followed by positive reinforcement. The more we achieve, the more reinforcement we get. One of the greatest mistakes of successful leaders is the assumption, “I behave this way, and I achieve results. Therefore, I must achieve results because I behave this way. […] One … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Marshall Goldsmith | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Personal Development, Personality / Behavior

As analytics exert greater influence in organizational decision making, the question of how to manage this essential asset is coming to a head.

Content: Article | Authors: Boris Abezgauz, Kumar Krishnamurthy, Tom Casey | Source: strategy+business | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Why do so many people dislike their bosses? One reason is that people in positions of authority are frequently asked not to exercise their leadership. Instead of mobilizing their constituents to face tough, frustrating challenges, they are asked to protect those constituents from having to make adjustments. That’s why leadership is dangerous. Sure, you have to protect people from change. But you also have to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Ronald A. Heifetz | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Organizational Behavior

It is not centralization that drives scale; it’s specialization. And that doesn’t have to be central at all. Specialization is about where you create centers of excellence—and that may or may not be at the corporate center. Now, creating this integrated network of specialized operations does increase the coordination needs. So when we wrote about centralization versus coordination, we emphasized the challenges of coordinating operations … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Christopher A. Bartlett | Source: Harvard Business School (HBS) Working Knowledge | Subjects: Management, Operations, Organizational Behavior

How better design could fix your workday—and your life .

Content: Article | Author: Julie Beck | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Organizational Behavior