The Messenger Really Matters

http://www.hrbartender.com/2011/employee/the-messenger-really-matters/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+HrBartender+%28hr+bartender%29

“It’s the message that is important, not the messenger.”

While I agree the message is important, the messenger is equallyimportant.  In fact, for some situations, the person who delivers the message can change the entire dynamic.  Here’s an example:

A company is struggling with their revenues.  The sales forecast isn’t good.  The organization must do a significant layoff to survive:

Can a representative from an outplacement firm deliver the message?  Sure they can.  Most people will call the company insensitive for doing such a thing.

7 Types of Power in the Workplace

http://www.hrbartender.com/2010/training/7-types-of-power-in-the-workplace/

• Coercive power is associated with people who are in a position to punish others. People fear the consequences of not doing what has been asked of them.

• Connection power is based upon who you know.  This person knows, and has the ear of, other powerful people within the organization.

• Expert power comes from a person’s expertise (duh!).  This is commonly a person with an acclaimed skill or accomplishment.

• A person who has access to valuable or important information possesses informational power.

• Legitimate power comes from the position a person holds.  This is related to a person’s title and job responsibilities.  You might also hear this referred to as positional power.

• People who are well-liked and respected can have referent power.

• Reward power is based upon a person’s ability to bestow rewards.  Those rewards might come in the form of job assignments, schedules, pay or benefits.

Wise Leadership

http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2011/06/wise-leadership.html

Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka, authors of the HBR article "The Wise Leader," explain how the best executives strive for the common good.

leadership and innovation

http://smartblogs.com/leadership/2011/07/07/dow-chemicals-carol-williams-on-leadership-and-innovation/

disciplined approach continues in applying the often-vague concept of leadership. Williams employs the “three Vs”:

• Vision – Inspiring people to look enthusiastically toward the future that you describe.
• Visible – Of your strategy, she says, “Communicate it in person.” This also involves making your vision visible to everyone, but also “tangible.”
• Value – What does the employee’s contribution mean to bringing about the vision, but also, what does it mean for them?

Let your stuff focus on their work

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/five-reasons-you-need-to-trust-your-staff/6384?tag=nl.e106

Trust begets trust.  Do you trust your staff to do their jobs and do them correctly?  If not, you have a situation that needs to be resolved. Your issue may be that:

• Your staff truly doesn’t have the skills to get the job done. If this is the case, you need to train your staff or add people with the correct skills.
• You may not have the self-confidence or experience to lead an experienced staff. This can manifest itself in a need to interfere or micromanage.

Obviously, there is a difference between general management and micromanagement and even the best leaders can sometimes devolve into micromanagement when stress is high. But when you have confidence in your staff, they will know it.  No one wants to be micromanaged; people want to work for those who value their contributions and that treat them like professionals.

There is also a difference between micromanagement and rolling your sleeves up and working alongside your staff when necessary.

Can You Answer the Miracle Question?

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/career-advice/blog/other-8-hours/can-you-answer-the-miracle-question/2597/

The questions you ask define your reality. They can help you live your best life or they can distract you (at best) or even derail you. It’s time you start thinking like a lawyer. A good trial lawyer uses questions to construct a reality that builds their case and best supports their client. It’s time that you become a better advocate for yourself by asking better questions.

Think of the questions you ask as a beacon of light. The focus of your question becomes the focus of your attention. No matter what questions you are asking, you are always defining what is important and what is worth your attention. If you get in the habit of asking problem-focused questions, your energy will be spent on your problems and not necessarily on the solutions.

Management ain’t magic, it’s learned

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/dont-be-the-victim-in-your-career/6070?tag=nl.e106

This is targeted more toward IT leaders and upper management, but one of the gravest sins you can commit as a leader is expecting that management and leadership skills exist naturally in everyone and will instantly flourish once you assign a new manager a cadre of direct reports. Most would laugh if I suggested taking a competent writer, plopping them in front of the latest development environment, and expecting them to write clean and efficient code since they’ve demonstrated excellent keyboarding talent, yet corporate management does the equivalent daily. Without a second thought, a talented technician or project manager will be promoted to an IT leadership position, and then their managers watch in horror as they spectacularly fail.

Like any other skill, management and leadership are learned talents, and expecting someone to thrive in a new role without training and development is ludicrous. Furthermore, this usually destroys two formerly effective positions by removing the technician from the role they excelled at, then not equipping them for success in their new role.

With careful planning and a focus on managing and running your career in an active and aggressive manner, you can excel in IT or any other field. Furthermore, approaching your career as a free agent opens up the entire world of employment, be it at a different company, in an entrepreneurial role, or in a position totally unrelated to technology. While it may be scary to embrace the fact that you wield so much power over your own career, the alternative of victimhood and long years spent being pushed by circumstance through your working life is far less palatable.

The Genius Hour

http://www.danpink.com/archives/2011/07/the-genius-hour-how-60-minutes-a-week-can-electrify-your-job

Lots of people believe that a single individual can’t make a difference in an organization.



Each week, employees can take a Genius Hour — 60 minutes to work on new ideas or master new skills. They’ve used that precious sliver of autonomy well, coming up with a range of innovations including training tools for other branches.
Of course, an hour a week for every employee isn’t much time. But it’s an hour more than most of us get. And Jen makes it work for at least three reasons.

Implementation matters. Jen admits that “it’s hard for our industry to see ways to offer autonomy,” and for good reason – credit unions are highly regulated and by necessity must be conservative. As a result, good ideas often blossom – and then wither from inaction. Jen works like a fiend to see that the best ideas get implemented.

Public Speaking

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/conquering-your-fear-of-public-speaking/1690

1-Face your fear. 
2-Know your material cold. 
3-It’s not all about you.
4-Interact with the audience.
5-What’s the worst that can happen? 

The Real Secret to Personal Productivity

http://www.bnet.com/blog/ceo/the-real-secret-to-personal-productivity/7862?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

If you’re into lists, The Real Secret to Personal Productivity is:

• Discipline
• Focus
• Strong work ethic
• Passion for your work
• Something to prove

#1 Question Every Leader Needs to Ask

http://www.bnet.com/blog/business-research/1-question-every-leader-needs-to-ask/1883?promo=713&tag=nl.e713
What Makes a Leader?
Level One: Sociopath
Level Two: Opportunist
Level Three: Chameleon
Level Four: Achiever
Level Five: Builder
Level Six: Transcendent

Top 10 languages

http://specials.msn.com/A-List/Lifestyle/Top-10-most-spoken-world-languages.aspx?cp-documentid=29378638&imageindex=1&GT1=36010

No. 10 – German
No. 9 – Japanese
No. 8 – Russian
No. 7 – Portuguese
No. 6 – Bengali
No. 5 – Hindi
No. 4 – Arabic
No. 3 – English
No. 2 – Spanish
 No. 1 – Chinese

Qualities of a great executive

1. Ask employees how you can best support them in doing their job

2. Make sure that employees have all the information, resources and support they need to do their job

3. Give continuous feedback, both positive and constructive

4. Provide opportunities for professional growth

5. Listen

6. Give frequent feedback

7. Understand your employees' jobs

8. Acknowledge your employees' work 

http://msn.careerbuilder.com/Article/MSN-2456-Workplace-Issues-12-Traits-of-a-Great-Boss/?SiteId=cbmsnhp42456&sc_extcmp=JS_2456_home1&gt1=23000

Are You a Collaborative Leader?

Developing a facebook application Chatter for collaboration and networking

http://hbr.org/2011/07/are-you-a-collaborative-leader/ar/1?cm_sp=most_widget-_-hbr_articles-_-Are%20You%20a%20Collaborative%20Leader%3F

The 4 Types of Teams All Leaders Need to Understand

The Strategist

Thomas A. Stewart

You saw it last night: UConn’s Kemba Walker is the best college basketball player in America. More than a star, he’s a sun around which the other players orbit.

Two generations ago, Bill Bradley, similarly solar, led Princeton to the NCAA’s Final Four; he was a prodigious scorer but also a promiscuous passer, shovelling the ball to other (less talented) players, who rebuffed his false modesty by passing it back. His pro career, though, was different. The New York Knicks were a team of near-equals; four of its five starters made the NBA’s hall of fame. Bradley himself scored, on average, about half as many points as he did in college. Like UConn’s Huskies, Bradley’s Tigers were a lead singer with a doo-wop chorus; his Knicks were a quintet.

So which was the better team?

Judging by the motivational posters you see on HR department walls, there are two kinds of teamwork. In one, everybody holds hands in a circle. We’re in this together, they seem to say. The handholders are often skydiving, but even a mile high you can smell the campfire and hear the voices singing “Kumbaya.” The other common poster shows someone reaching out to give someone a helping hand-up a hill, across a gorge. In these pictures, the strong help the weak; Indiana Jones races back into the temple to save the arthritic old-timer and plucky girl with the twisted ankle before the roof falls in. It’s the opposite of UConn’s hoopsters, where the team exists to feed the best player.

Actually, there are four different kinds of teams, none of which has anything to do with sentimentality. They’re organized in different ways; they’re suited to different purposes; and if you understand the taxonomy of teamwork you’ll be a better leader and a better player.

• Problem solvers. One reason to team up is to crack a tough problem, because when it comes to banging against a wall, two heads are better than one, and seven or eight are better still. Juries are problem-solvers. So are teams of analysts. These teams need a clear goal–a problem and a deadline. They want diversity of sex, background, and cognition, and not just tokenism, as studies by Lynda Gratton of London Business School show. Some of the best, teams of virtuosos, can be cantankerous and quarrelsome. That’s why they need a galvanizing goal: without one, their very diversity may tear them apart. American World War II movies depict problem-solving teams: Iowa farm-boy, West Virginia miner, Brooklyn stick-ball player, and preppie musician call on their disparate skills to improvise a way to destroy the impregnable German pillbox.
• Loyal followers. In British movies about the Second World War, the emphasis is on banding together to serve the charismatic leader. The greatest of those films was Laurence Olivier’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry V, where the young king summoned his knights and common soldiers once more into the breach, having earlier called them

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me

Shall be my brother; be ne’re so base.

(In Shakespeare’s text, “base” is “vile,” from villein, meaning commoner.) A team of loyal followers needs not a problem but a cause–someone or something worth putting yourself on the line for. That’s not usually shareholder value, incidentally.

• Ragtag bands of merry men. These teams exist outside an organization’s power structure and are often purposefully subversive of it. They may be true outlaws like Robin Hood and his Sherwood Forest buddies or Castro and his cadre in the Sierra Maestra mountains. In business, ragtag bands may be start-ups, some of which have it in for the establishment. (RememberMacintosh’s “1984″ Super Bowl commercial?) Sometimes they’re employees set up as the loyal opposition, like Lockheed’s Skunk Works and its imitators-special groups protected from hierarchs and budget hawks so as to disrupt the existing order from within. These teams usually have an official leader responsible for placating the authorities, but are highly democratic and improvisatory internally.
• Protective cordons. Every good team protects its members, but some are designed specifically for the purpose. For the most part these aren’t high-performing teams; their purpose is protection, not production. At their worst, these teams obscure accountability, tolerate mediocre performance, and cover up each other’s sins. That happens when bureaucratic companies want to hide from customers, for example. In these teams, everyone’s responsible, so no one’s responsible. That’s not always a bad thing. At their best, these teams protect decent people so from capricious or arbitrary bosses. “They can’t fire all of us” is their motto– the corporate version of “I’m Spartacus.”

A smart leader suits the team to the task and vice versa. That’s not easy. In my experience, most organizations have teams of all four kinds, but one style dominates. (If your organization has a lot of protective teams, you should ask why.)  I don’t think individual teams change much. Outlaws don’t come indoors, put on cardigans, and sip sherry; protectors don’t suddenly congregate in the team room, open their laptops, and start problem-solving. Which type of team is better? That depends on the job.

10 Leadership Lessons From Food Network Chefs

The Corner Office

Steve Tobak

Engaged in a fierce battle on last night’s Chopped All-Stars, chef Aarón Sanchez quipped, “When brilliance happens, you don’t ask where it came from, you just kind of go with it, ride the wave.”

It didn’t matter that he was referring to making whipped cream out of chickpeas; he might just as well have been talking about the next high-tech innovation or big business idea.

If you watch enough Food Network shows like Iron Chef or Worst Cooks in America, a picture of what greatness is all about begins to emerge. No, I’m not talking about great chefs making great food. I’m talking about great leaders.

What separates iconic chefs like Bobby Flay, Masimaru Morimoto,and Cat Cora from the millions of competitors around the world is their leadership ability. It’s evident in their behavior, their character, everything they do. Never mind that they’re on TV. They may as well be cooking in one of their restaurants or mentoring an up-and-coming sous chef.

Restaurants deliver product and service like any other business. But make no mistake. The cooking business is a fiercely competitive battleground that breeds great chefs who are also great leaders.

10 Leadership Lessons From Food Network Chefs

1. Compete to win but respect the enemy. Forget all the politically correct BS - business is about winning. And yes, it is a zero-sum game. It’s all about market share. But that doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t respect your competitors.
2. Success is about managing and mentoring people. The way chefs move up is by hiring talented cooks and training them to be sous chefs so they can someday run one of their many restaurants. It’s the same as climbing the corporate ladder.
3. Results are all that matter. It’s what the customer thinks of the product and service that counts. That’s what creates repeat business and loyal customers. You may think you’ve come up with a brilliant dish, but if the folks don’t like it, you failed.
4. You’ve got to know the business. Steve Jobs isn’t just a brilliant marketer. Warren Buffet isn’t just a smart investor. Bill Gates wasn’t just a great software coder. Just like these iconic leaders, every great chef has a head for the business.
5. It’s not who you know but what you know. Don’t let anyone tell you success is about who you know. That’s just an excuse for whiners who can’t cut it. Great chefs know everything there is to know about making a restaurant business successful. Period.
6. Experience is overrated. Even young chefs like Sanchez and Bobby Flay - when he was first starting out - exude such instincts and passion for what they do that you know in a heartbeat they’re going to be successful. That’s why people follow them.
7. Learn from failure and move on. Failure is how we learn and grow. Failure teaches us how to do things differently. How to do things better. Great chefs don’t dwell on their mistakes. They suck it up and do better next time. After all, there’s always another meal.
8. Focus on core strengths. Great chefs grow their business around their core strengths. For Flay it’s southwestern. Paul Prudhomme is a Cajun master. You can probably guess Mario Batali’s specialty. There are lots of ways to diversify without going too far afield.
9. Smarts matter. Nobody has ever been successful in the restaurant or cooking business by just doing the same stuff as everyone else. Sure, execution is critical, but innovation and creativity are also requirements for success. Like it or not, smarts matter.
10. Work hard, play hard. Even while competing at an extraordinarily high level, these chefs never lose their sense of humor and, when it’s over, they party and congratulate each other on a job well done. That’s how it should be.

Also check out:

• CEOs are Just Like You - Without All the Whining
• 5 Characteristics of Successful People
• 10 Business and Leadership Lessons From Machiavelli

Be A Leader : Leading cross functional teams

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Leadership is not so much about technique and methods as it is about opening the heart. Leadership is about inspiration; of oneself and of others. Great leadership is about human experiences, not processes. Leadership is not a formula or a program, it is a human activity that comes from the heart and considers the hearts of others. It is an attitude, not a routine. - Lance Secretan, Industry Week 98

The word "leadership" comes from an old Norse word-root meaning "to make go." Indeed, leadership is about making things go — making people go, making organizations go. But the misunderstandings come in when leaders fail to recognize who actually makes what go.

Be it service or production - leadership is essential element to mange group integration and best practices. Fast growing IT & Biotech industries are in need of great leaders to manage innovation and intelligence. With expectation of managing multiple functionalities and skills required business, Buzz world wants cross-functional team leaders.

Cross Functional Team
A cross-functional team is made up of participants from a variety of business functions. For instance, one might have a cross-functional team whose aim is to develop a new product. That team might be composed of participants from the company's manufacturing, sales, marketing, and financial functions. Cross-functional teams help companies do more with less.

Cross-functional teaming is not just about managing relationships in different locations or functions. It is not about using "old management techniques" in a new business world. Rather, it is about expanding our thinking and our tools to create new opportunities that are aligned with the best thinking about using the resources of our people.

Leading As Leader

Effective team leader are self-directed with teams and committees. Effective team leader has a clear vision and able to communicate that vision to the members of the team. Such leaders develop a sense of urgency about the team’s work, involve team members in goal setting and decision-making and foster a climate of openness and honesty. People want to work for them.

If we try to identify key words to become or leading a team as a leader then such words are: - Clear Vision, With Teams & Committees, Ability to communicate vision, Sense of Urgency, Involve team in decision-making, Openness and Honesty.

When we talk about cross-functional team leader, leader should add further more keywords. Pulling a group of people together and dealing with upper management, functional department heads and support groups.

Lao Tzu said "Be gentle and you can be bold; be frugal and you can be liberal; avoid putting yourself before others and you can become a leader among men."

Let me list out qualities a leader needs.

* Be participative than directive, more enabling than performing.
* Leaders do nothing more important than have people get results.
* Practice effective relationship management up down and across the organization.
* Be able to work with little, no, or at best unclear authority.
* Demonstrate a working knowledge of the technical, scientific and business issues.
* Facilitate the establishment of team goals and an implementation plan and then keep focused on their targets.
* Protect team from undue and unproductive interference.
* Be assertive about obtaining the resources necessary for the team to be successful.
* Keep faith with the past, keep step with the present, and keep the promise to posterity. (Harold)
* Commit and believe in value of the work and willingness to work through obstacles.
* Able to deal with ambiguity and act without complete information.
* Be open to change and help the team adjust to changing conditions and priorities.
* Be authentic; make honest commitments, tell the truth and act with integrity.
* Inspire self with great confidence in self.
* Leader is to get others to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve (Tom Landry)

Cross functional leader needs following qualities in core of leadership.
- Recognizing the talent and contribution each individual can make.
- Keeping the team focused on goals, measurements and outcomes.
- Facilitating a sense of diversity, interdependence and accountability among team members.
- Defining a decision process that encourages empowerment and keeps corporate bureaucracy to a minimum.
- Realizing that organizational change is more a way of life than an obstacle to be overcome.

And Finally…
Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning. (Warren Bennis)

Further Readings
Managing cross-functional teams - Terry R. Seamons
Leadership and Cross Functional Teams - Brent Filson

Introverted employees make the best leaders

By Toni Bowers

March 8, 2011, 4:47 AM PST

Takeaway: It is a misconception that all introverts are shy. The two are different — an important distinction to understand when you’re considering a leadership position.

The term “introverted” is often used interchangeably with “shy.” This is misleading. Introversion itself is not shyness. Shyness brings with it feelings of nervousness and anxiety. Although an introvert may be shy, it actually means that person is energized by being alone, and is drained by being around other people.

I’m an introvert; my husband is an extrovert. He literally can’t go long without being around a lot of people. It is exactly like a battery charge for him. I, on the other hand, literally get uneasy if I don’t have a period of solitude in every day.

I get frustrated by the faulty definition of introvert. I think it subconsciously makes introverts feel like they could never be leaders because they don’t have the people skills needed. So it was with great glee that I ran across a piece on Forbes.com that put this topic in proper perspective and actually made a case for why introverts make the best leaders. (Little known fact: Introverts make up about 60% of the gifted population but only about 25-40% of the general population.)

My hat’s off to the author of the piece, Jennifer B. Kahnweiler, for outlining the characteristics of introverts that make them great leaders:

1. They think first, talk later (In other words, they think before they speak.)
2. They focus on depth. They are drawn to meaningful conversations, not superficial chitchat, and they know how to ask great questions and really listen to the answers.
3. They exude calm. In times of crisis, they project a reassuring, calm confidence
4. They prefer writing to talking. This comfort with the written word often helps them better articulate their positions and document their actions.
5. They embrace solitude. The need to get away from people and recharge actually fuels their thinking, creativity and decision-making and, when the pressure is on, helps them be responsive, not reactive.

If you’re an introvert, do yourself a favor and read the original piece.