A good friend of mine shared that his grandmother was one of the first women to enter the Army Nurse Corps in World War II. She was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and decades later still pulled rank when he would stay home sick from school. She’d take him gallons of water throughout the day and take his temperature with an old glass and mercury thermometer. He still saw her snapping her wrist just so to make the thermometer click and she could read the result without glasses. He, however, had never been able to read a glass thermometer though he could write a dissertation on how to do so. (more…)
Much Like the Ubiquitous Black Military Pen
Posted by: Elizabeth on May 11, 2012
Don’t ask me how much the research cost, but the US Army War College coined a term – VUCA to describe the dynamic nature of our world today. It has been applied across many disciplines and is aptly applied to a business environment:
- Volatility- The nature, speed, volume, magnitude and dynamics of change
- Uncertainty – The lack of predictability of issues and events
- Complexity – The confounding of issues and the chaos that surround any organization
- Ambiguity – The haziness of reality and the mixed meaning of conditions
The best leaders and leadership pipeline candidates are those that can lead in a VUCA world. No longer are there linear problems and solutions, rather, people connections matter at least as much as process. (more…)
Who Are You Calling Boron?
Posted by: Elizabeth on May 9, 2012
I’ve been hearing you, “Liz,” you say, “I know all about intelligence, emotional intelligence, and even values. While I do need to think about quantifying these for my leadership pipeline these concepts aren’t that new.” Today’s fifth element will just what you are looking for.
Learning Agility is the ultimate “X” factor for success in a dynamic and capricious business world. (more…)
Can You Quantify Values and Drive?
Posted by: Elizabeth on May 4, 2012
Simple rule for lawyers and bloggers – never lead with a question you can’t answer. Yes! You can quantify values and drive, and in People & Strategy, Povah and Sobczak have compiled some fascinating research on how they impact leadership.
Values centers around the character traits of integrity, honesty, sincerity, trust and respect. We know those traits when we see them, but we must also learn to take measure of them during leadership selection. (more…)
I Second That Emotion
Posted by: Elizabeth on May 2, 2012
I had a friend once who had two kids that loved to compete with one another. The boy was a straight A student, president of the chess club, and received early acceptance into the Ivy League. The younger girl was a B- student, captain of the cheerleading squad and class VP. One day he was gloating about his grades so she stuck her tongue out him and declared that he might be a brainiac but was a social misfit while she would always have loads of friends and was a social genius.
Sadly, she was right. He didn’t have a lick of sense or ambition beyond his textbooks while she had networking skills that would serve her career forever. (more…)
Cult of Personality?
Posted by: Elizabeth on April 26, 2012
We have introduced a contextual leadership focus to examine how leadership success is defined and articulated in your organization. Povah and Sobczak have researched how to identify leaders that perform successfully within shifting priorities and cultural changes. This contextual approach focuses on both internal affairs such as organizational culture and economics, and external factors to include the shifting economy and product/service innovations.
We know that individual organizations require their own unique skills and character traits to be successful. It is imperative that we examine, define, and articulate those attributes in order to assess our leadership requirements and determine those we lack. (more…)
Throw Your Hands in the Air Like You Don’t Care – Cameo
Posted by: Elizabeth on April 24, 2012
We all strive for consistency, even within our company blog however, there are shifting and conflicting paradigms. Leadership theory continues to unfold with “new” or re-invented ideas but may leave us all confused and inundated with new information so that we end up doing nothing – throw your hands up ‘cause you don’t care!
Lucy Povah and Kate Sobczak construct a contextual leadership model in People & Strategy that examines learning agility and how successful leaders successfully learn and adapt. (more…)
Don’t Just Tell Me, Show Me
Posted by: Amy on April 19, 2012
We’ve been looking at some handy dandy checklists and learning about how to use the power of small wins to engage and motivate our employees. I don’t know about you, but all the “dos” bog me down and I need a scenario. Amabile and Kramer provide us with such a scenario to illustrate their findings, which I summarize below: (more…)
Arise, consciousness!
Posted by: Amy on April 17, 2012
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Albert Einstein
We have been looking at Amabile and Kramer’s research on how to give workers a vision for the meaning in their work. In our last blog we looked at catalysts and nourishers – methods that we as managers can use to help our employees see the contributions they make in our organizations. We also looked at a daily checklist to use as a guideline as we infuse our employees with a sense of purpose, engagement, and productivity.
However, we would be remiss if we didn’t look at the inhibitors to that meaning and progress. (more…)
Who Doesn’t Love a Checklist?
Posted by: Amy on April 13, 2012
We have been looking at how to provide your employees with catalysts and nourishers to have more progress days and higher overall achievement and job satisfaction. Amablie and Kramer have published The Power of Small Wins that we are reviewing to motivate and engage our employee. They have provided a daily progress checklist to review the day and plan managerial actions for the next:
Describe 1 or 2 events today that indicated either a small win or a possible breakthrough.
Catalysts:
- Did the team have clear short- and long-term goals for meaningful work?
- Did team members have sufficient autonomy to problem solve and take (more…)
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