A Leadership Dashboard for Managing Complexity
October 3, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, leadership, performance management, productivity
Leading people and organisations is fundamentally more complicated than it was 20 years ago—and it’s not getting any easier. Economic and global uncertainties, along with innovative technologies, complicate efforts to run a business.
Businesses are also becoming more intrinsically complex. It’s harder to predict outcomes because intricate systems interact in unexpected ways.
Leadership Resilience
September 11, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, coaching, leadership
“Some of the most important and insightful learning is far more likely to come from failures than from success.” ~ Former Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley, interviewed in Harvard Business Review (April 2011)
How we respond to failures and bounce back from our mistakes can make or break our careers. The wisdom of learning from failure is undeniable, yet individuals and organisations rarely seize opportunities to embrace these hard-earned lessons.
The Truth About Empathy
August 21, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, coaching, communication, integrity, values
Without empathy, you’ll never be able to communicate effectively and relate well to others. People who lack empathy are sure to face interpersonal difficulties that lead to inferior performance, negative outcomes, and poor relationships with coworkers and customers.
As a competency skill, empathy is poorly understood by those who need it the most. Some hard-driving managers eschew the need to develop empathy because they assume it’s for “touchy-feely” types. Other tone-deaf leaders blindly walk around, relying solely on logic and wondering why others fail to see things their way.
The Search for Executive Wisdom
July 31, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, coaching, leadership
“A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go but ought to be.” ~ Rosalynn Carter, former First Lady
Every person in an executive role is expected to exercise wisdom in their decisions. However, senior leaders are often more concerned with meeting the numbers and therefore fail to come close to being astute over the long term.
Changing Minds
July 17, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, coaching, communication
“All leadership comes down to this: changing people’s behaviour.” – Alan Deutschman in Fast Company (“Change or Die,” May 2005)
Changing people’s behaviour is the most important challenge for business leaders competing in unpredictable environments.
Managing Organisational Change
June 26, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, change management, coaching
“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.” – John Kenneth Galbraith
Today’s fast-paced economy demands that businesses change or die. Few companies manage corporate transformations as well as they would like. It is said that anywhere from 50 to 80 percent of all change initiatives fail.
How Corporate Culture Drives Results
May 15, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, change management, integrity, values, leadership
“The person who figures out how to harness the collective genius of their organisation is going to blow the competition away.” ~ Walter Wriston, former CEO Citicorp
A New York Times headline April 27, 2011 claims a culture of complicity was tied to Japan’s stricken nuclear plant disaster. NASA’s 2003 Columbia Space Shuttle disaster is another tragic example of what happens when cultural norms fail. Six months after the shuttle disintegrated upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven crew members, NASA investigators found that “organisational culture and structure had as much to do with the accident as the [shuttle’s damaged] foam.”
The Talent Myth
February 27, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, coaching, goals, leadership, motivation
Everyone’s talking about ways to find opportunity amid times of uncertainty and change. Yet there’s something right under our noses that’s being overlooked: Times of crisis present unprecedented opportunities to stretch and develop real leadership capabilities.
What’s needed, specifically?
Start Change Right and Create the Snowball Effect
January 19, 2011 by Di
Filed under change leadership, change management, coaching, goals
To effect change, you must do something differently.
Start change in the right way, and you’ll enjoy a snowball effect that helps your team, direct reports and even family members implement change.
Business school professors Chip and Dan Heath cover the patterns all successful change efforts have in common in Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard (2010).
Christmas Sale Now On!
December 1, 2010 by Di
Filed under change leadership, change management, communication, leadership
Dramatic Savings on our most popular titles !!!
Welcome to this on-line forum for leaders of change. My name is Di Worrall, and I help business leaders with the skills and confidence to make change happen for themselves, their career and their business. As an author, organisational change specialist and executive coach, I work with leaders to create a clear path through change and uncertainty; build their leadership skills and confidence; and create systems for lasting change and a more prosperous and sustainable future. For regular updates on our best leadership and change articles, you can subscribe to our fortnightly ezine below.
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