175 Posts found for Source: Leader to Leader

When leaders give reasons for change to people who don’t agree with them, it’s worse than ineffective. A significant body of research shows that it usually entrenches those people more deeply in opposition to what the leaders are proposing.

This is why the traditional leadership approach of trying to persuade people of something different by giving them reasons why they should change their minds isn’t … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Stephen Denning | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Change Management, Leadership, Management

Desiring alignment and delivering it are two different matters. We have found that the concept of a brand promotes alignment between external expectations and internal actions. In marketing terms, brand represents the expectations associated with a product or service that differentiates it from competitor offerings in the minds of customers and influences customer opinion, choice, and behavior. We can adapt this definition to define three … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Dave Ulrich, Norman Smallwood | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management, Marketing / Sales

Most business issues are not the result of things being done poorly or even the wrong things being done. Businesses fail because the assumptions on which the organization has been built and is being run no longer fit reality. These assumptions involve markets, customers, competitors, technology, and a company’s own strengths and weaknesses. The best CEOs have the courage to question: What is our business? … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Management

Throughout history, the great majority of people never had to ask the question, what should I contribute? They were told what to contribute, and their tasks were dictated either by the work itself by a master or a mistress. Knowledge workers have to learn to ask that question based on an understanding and melding of their strengths and passions. And the question must be revisited … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Career

Most organizations staff their problems and starve their opportunities. When people begin to start talking about problems, I say, ‘No, wait a minute. Let’s first look at the opportunities.’

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Opportunity, Problems / Solutions

Despite a surge in interest in improving engagement, people still disagree about what employee engagement is, how to go about getting it, and what it looks like when it is achieved. Additionally, with all the attention given to reported levels of low employee engagement, there are few if any statistics on what a realistic level of engagement should be for employees overall and for various … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Theresa M. Welbourne | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

One of the distinguishing features of people is that they have strong ideas about what is right and wrong. If you can resonate, collectively, with those ideas, then you can tap into people’s commitment and creativity to a far greater degree.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Organizational Behavior

The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers. Some people are thinkers. Some are prophets. Both roles are important and badly needed. But without followers, there can be no leaders.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Leadership

An effective leader is not someone who is loved or admired. He or she is someone whose followers do the right things. Popularity is not leadership. Results are.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Leadership

I worry about organizations that cannot fire one person but can fire a thousand.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Human Resources, Management

For any organization, the starting point of greatness is not in meeting expectations–whether of shareholders, board members, or constituents–but fulfilling a Purpose that fits the identity of the organization. For example, is a foundation charged primarily with discovery: inventing new approaches to helping people? Or with excellence: promoting a high standard of service and execution? Or with altruism: making greater numbers of people happy? Or … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Nikos Mourkogiannis | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Management, Organizational Behavior

Organizations of all kinds are cluttered with control mechanisms that paralyze employees and leaders alike. Where have all these policies, procedures, protocols, laws, and regulations come from? And why is it so difficult to avoid creating more, even as we suffer from the terrible confines of overcontrol? These mechanisms seem to derive from our fear — our fear of one another, of a harsh competitive … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Fear / Doubt, Organizational Behavior

People organize together to accomplish more, not less. Behind every organizing impulse is a realization that by joining with others we can accomplish something important that we could not accomplish alone. And this impulse to organize so as to accomplish more is not only true of humans, but is found in all living systems. Every living thing seeks to create a world in which it … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Organizational Behavior

People do not need the intricate directions, time lines, plans, and organization charts that we thought we had to give them. These are not how people accomplish good work, they are what impede contributions. But people do need a lot from their leaders. They need information, access to one another, resources, trust, and follow-through. Leaders are necessary to foster experimentation, to help create connections across … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management

Peter Senge told us, “Mission instills the passion and patience for the long journey.” If we can summon both the passion to pursue that journey and the patience to stop for travelers we meet along the way, our organizations will be well served indeed.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Mission

Pursuing a mission without achieving results is dispiriting; achieving results without a mission is meaningless.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Mission

A vision without a task is but a dream,
a task without a vision is drudgery,
a vision and a task is the hope of the world.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Strategy, Vision

Talented people don’t want you to come to them and say, “Here’s what I’m going to do. What do you think?” They want you to set up issues in terms of, “Here are the challenges we face. What do you think?”

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Management

I keep running into highly capable people all over this country who literally never give a thought to the well-being of their community. And I keep wondering who gave them permission to stand aside! I’m asking you to issue a wake-up call to those people — a bugle call right in their ear. And I want you to tell them that this nation could die … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

For twenty years R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. has worked as a diversity consultant, researcher, and author. Now as never before he sees the need to broaden and redefine our ideas and behaviors around diversity. Indeed, what happens in the next decade will be crucial in determining whether America’s leaders move forward in their efforts to create cohesive, effective organizations–or simply muddle through. In turn, what … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: R. Roosevelt Thomas Jr. | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Human Resources, Management