I was fascinated by the recent conversation with Jonathan Spitz in which he describes the inner workings of an essentially leaderless (or all-leader, depending on your interpretation) organization. His story of Orpheus initially conjured up mental images for me of often dysfunctional and combative meetings where, to borrow a tired but still applicable metaphor, there are too many cooks in Continue Reading →
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Play At The Absolute Highest Level
One of the fascinating aspects of the series of interviews that Maril has conducted in the Let Go and Lead project is the way that the participants’ real life stories and perspectives support taking a counter intuitive approach to the work place. Each of these remarkable individuals has shown how doing things differently, not succumbing to what seems the norm, Continue Reading →
How Would You Answer This Question?
On Saturday, my daughter and niece took the ACT. The essay question centered on whether social technologies have strengthened or hindered human relationships. I thought that was interesting (and timely) because I had started to work on a blog about that very subject. I had found myself arguing both sides – on multiple levels. And I’d spent way more time on Continue Reading →
How Do You Define Leadership?
I think Jay Conger would agree with me: Being a leader isn’t like being a manager on steroids. Being a leader demands new skills and new perspective. The crucial skills of a leader are: the ability to see opportunity, to communicate, to align and delegate, to direct, and to recognize and listen. These skills must then be applied by the Continue Reading →
The Balancing Act of Great Leaders
The introduction to Jay Conger’s interview got me thinking about the role paradox plays in effective leadership. As leaders, and as people, we rarely face straightforward challenges that can be solved with one simple approach. Rather, the challenges we face are complex, multifaceted and require us to employ a variety of strategies and solutions that often depend on or even Continue Reading →
Sometimes it’s Good to Let Go & Follow
The more I think about and practice leadership, the more convinced I am that we also need to hone the discipline and skill of following. “Followership,” although less lauded, is every bit as noble and grand – and in many instances, even more critical to the success of an outcome. In fact, odd as it seems, certain followers have more Continue Reading →
Why Isn’t Everyone Leaving Goldman Sachs?
By now, you’ve heard all about Greg Smith’s public resignation from Goldman Sachs. Here are the first three things that struck me when I read it: Most of us don’t know Mr. Smith, his motives or the other side of the story. Yet, we find his account believable based on what we “know” about Goldman. And based on how he’s Continue Reading →
Introducing the Social Intranet
Social media has generated a flurry of organizational buzzwords and catch phrases — collaboration, enterprise 2.0, knowledge share, cloud computing, community, online reputation, social CRM, crowd sourcing… and the list goes on and on. One of the phrases that you hear more and more frequently is actually one that has been around for quite some time: employee engagement. (And one Continue Reading →
Letty, Go and Lead!
Okay, so I couldn’t resist the headline! I had the pleasure of first meeting service director Leticia Molino at the customer service desk at O’Hare. She has a love for her airline that’s absolutely infectious. She carries a photo album with pictures of her family – her United Continental family, that is. The first snapshot shows her with CEO Jeff Continue Reading →
Make Change Personal
Change is hard. Even the most agile of organizations have to slave over it. Above all else, the acceptance, adoption, and embodiment of change collectively involves thoughtful communication…and a boat load of it. The difference between those organizations that do this really well and those that simply give it a bunch of lip comes down to one thing (IMHO): how Continue Reading →
Clicks and Mortar: Constructing an Online Community
With the advent of countless social media tools to build bridges between people, it’s tempting to count click-throughs and page views to certify that we’ve completed our virtual public square. But building a true online community isn’t quite that simple. To see what I mean, take a minute to think about community. If a community were just a place to Continue Reading →
Less Perfection More Humanity
Simon Mainwaring in his interview with Maril, talks about today’s marketplace of increased transparency, accountability and authenticity and the implications for company leaders when control in a traditional sense is gone. He says that authenticity isn’t about being ideal or perfect. “ It is about being true to who you are and more human in the way you approach your Continue Reading →