Leadership and the Cultural Conundrum of Body Language

Leaders don’t all walk and talk the same. Staying true to one’s culture is integral to empowered leadership.

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg: ‘No One Can Have It All’

Coming to terms with that reality is invaluable for women trying to find fulfillment as both great leaders and great parents.

Hierarchy Is Overrated

Maybe you’ve heard the old cliché – if you’ve got “too many chiefs,” your initiative will fail. Every time I hear it, I wonder, “Why can’t everyone be a chief?”

Thomas H. Davenport and Brook Manville

Even in this age of abundant data and rocket-science analytics, many decisions force people to draw on their accumulated wisdom to make the right call. Sometimes that’s because the absolute right answer can’t be known; the question at hand relates to a future too full of uncertainty. Other times, the optimal solution could be determined based on accessible information, but the urgency of the situation … [ Read more ]

Beware Sophomoric Self-Obsession

Art Kleiner introduces a leadership lesson from Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning, 3rd Edition, by Chip R. Bell and Marshall Goldsmith.

Rethinking the Marketing Organization

Many consumer-products companies have complex marketing organizations that hinder strategic focus, decision making, and responsiveness—undermining their ability to compete effectively in a changing marketplace. Here’s how to rethink the traditional model and rebuild a leaner, more agile structure that better meets today’s strategic challenges and cost pressures.

David Ulrich

Generally, when thinking about an organization, we turn to morphology (i.e., the study of structure or form), and we define an organization by its roles, rules, and routines:
* Roles define the hierarchy of who reports to whom and who has accountability for work.
* Rules represent policies and prescriptions for how work is done.
* Routines reflect processes or cultures within the workplace.

Confidence Does Not Lead to Success

Most confident people are not as competent as they think, and most competent people are confident only as a result of being competent.

Encouraging Your People to Take the Long View

Employees and managers should be measured as much on their contribution to an organization’s long-term health as to its performance.

Nigel Topping

When companies are first asked to be transparent by investors or major customers, they often start the journey somewhat begrudgingly. But as they become more transparent, they discover all sorts of things about their business. So the most interesting gem of transparency is that it leads to new insights, which leads to innovation.

Robert J. Thomas, Joshua Bellin

Research into career paths at major corporations has shown that early promotions greatly enhance an individual’s chances of reaching a senior level, while those who are “knocked out” of the competition at early stages can be locked out of any further advancement. The implication: Senior managers are drawn from a pool of individuals who succeeded early in areas of individual contribution such as efficiency, while … [ Read more ]

To Motivate, Better to Take Away Than to Give

Our motivation to work for goals is not steadfast: it can wax and wane depending upon factors both psychological (a bad mood) and environmental (nearby construction work). Determining how to enhance task motivation, therefore, remains a significant pursuit for both researchers and managers alike.

Editor’s Note: the comments on this article’s controversial findings are as more–or more–interesting as the article.

Charles O’Reilly: Why Some Companies Seem to Last Forever

All companies hit rough patches from time to time. But only a few manage to survive decade after decade — some of them in a form that bears no resemblance to the original organization. Nokia began in 1865 as a riverside paper mill along the Tammerkoski Rapids in southwestern Finland. In the late 1880s, Johnson & Johnson got its start by manufacturing the first commercial … [ Read more ]

Ira Gaberman and Marieke Witjes

Getting the right mix of strategy and culture creates a formula for business success. Pursuing a strategy of innovation in a dynamic market can only succeed within an inquisitive culture where the workforce pushes boundaries and management encourages new ideas and constructive risk-taking. Similarly, pursuing a strategy of high-volume, low-cost processes can only succeed within a disciplined culture where the workforce operates in an efficient, … [ Read more ]

How You Can Be a Great Mentor, and a Great Protégé

Here is a list of “quick tips” for mentors and their protégés taken from the book, Managers as Mentors: Building Partnerships for Learning by Chip Bell and Marshall Goldsmith.

Overcoming a Bias Against Risk

Risk-averse midlevel managers making routine investment decisions can shift an entire company’s risk profile. An organization-wide stance toward risk can help.

Corporate Culture Is Dead. Long Live Corporate Culture

I’ve seen two strong theories about the future of corporate culture recently. Both are compelling, and each comes to a very different conclusion. In other words, we have all the ingredients for a debate.

Chip Heath

At Intuit, founder Scott Cook developed what they call a culture of experimentation. As he put it, most decisions are based on “politics, persuasion, and PowerPoint,” and none of these “three Ps” are fully trustworthy. So Intuit bases decisions on experiments.

Why Bosses Matter

Middle managers don’t get lots of respect in the workplace. And for a variety of reasons, scholars have mostly studied the worth of CEOs and the efficacy of various management practices. But a new study by Kathryn Shaw, Edward Lazear and Christopher Stanton suggests that front-line supervisors are far more important than many have thought.