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Links for Light Reading – April (a late March edition!) 2012

April 1, 2012 By Clare 1 Comment

If you’re interested in subscribing to receive my ‘links for light reading’ via email you can sign up here, or you can find all the previous newsletters on the blog.

This month’s ‘links for light reading’ is a little late, but better late than never, right?

Three great articles on leadership caught my eye this month….

  • Self knowledge has long been established as one of the hallmarks of great leaders. This piece from The Guardian, titled You are a leader – but how well do you know yourself?, outlines seven ideas that leaders can use to learn more about their performance. The list includes a suggestion to take a personality test – my personal favourite (and the one that I find most useful) is the VIA Survey of Character Strengths (the questionnaire and results can be accessed from Dr. Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness site (test is free, but registration is required)).
  • In a recent blog post ‘Good Boss, Bad Boss’ author and Stanford University professor, Bob Sutton, shares a useful method for determining if you or your boss is self-aware (and listens well).
  • And finally, this short post, Mo Cheeks and a fundamental question of leadership, (featuring a video of former Portland Trail Blazers coach, Mo Cheeks) highlights why acting as a leader demands that we embrace our own mediocrity…. “‘Am I willing to risk my personal reputation and status for the good of others?’ becomes a fundamental question any potential leader must answer.  We must balance the inferior nature of our solution and abilities against what the state of the world would be if we did not act.”

And another couple of worthwhile reads to add to your Easter holiday reading list….

  • Innovation Is About Arguing, Not Brainstorming. Here’s How To Argue Productively. This article presents five key rules of engagement that have been found to yield fruitful group innovation sessions and ultimately lead to meaningful ideas.
  • I’m fascinated about how the way we work is changing and how it’s going to continue to change into the future, including changes to the physical environment in which we work. This piece, The future of work spaces: hot desks or cold comfort?, looks at the ways that some companies are beginning to change how they use their office space.

Filed Under: Links for light reading Tagged With: leadership

Book Review: Leading with Questions

February 11, 2012 By Clare Leave a Comment

Leading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to AskLeading with Questions: How Leaders Find the Right Solutions by Knowing What to Ask by Michael J. Marquardt, Ed.D.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It starts by building the case for questions (‘The Power of Questions’) and examines the common thread between the disasters of the Titanic, the Challenger and the Bay of Pigs – the inability or unwillingness of key participants to raise questions about their concerns. The later parts of the book provide useful practical advice and examples for leaders to make better use of questions in managing people, building teams and enabling change. As I made my way through the book I was able to identify many opportunities/situations that I could imagine using (or wish I’d used) the suggested questions.

My notes from Leading with Questions

[Disclaimer: The notes below are rough, and may be a mixture of direct quotes, paraphrasing, and my own thoughts/ideas/reminders. They’re written here primarily for me (so they may not make much sense out of context, especially for those who haven’t read the book)].

(28) When we ask questions of others and invite them to search for answers with us, we are not just sharing information, we are sharing responsibility. A questioning culture is a culture in which responsibility is shared, ideas are shared, problems are shared, and ownership of results is shared.

(29) 6 hallmarks of a questioning culture. People in it:

  • are willing to admit, “I don’t know”
  • go beyond allowing questions, they encourage questions
  • help to develop the skills needed to ask questions in a positive way
  • focus on asking empowering questions and avoiding disempowering questions
  • emphasis the process of asking questions and searching for answers rather than finding the ‘right’ answers
  • accept and reward risk-taking

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: book, leadership, questions

Confident, but not really sure

July 24, 2010 By Clare Leave a Comment

… the best leaders and the best organizations have strong opinions that are weakly held. Strong opinions reflect and instill confidence, and also provide clear guidance about the direction that people should try to go right now. But, since those opinions are weakly held, they don’t stand as barriers to change when better information comes along.

Filed Under: Link Tagged With: leadership, management, work

Apologies Are a Sign of Strength

March 11, 2010 By Clare Leave a Comment

We lose respect for a leader when he or she fails to acknowledge a mistake. What we want to see in our leaders is a sense of self-awareness and honesty.

Filed Under: Link Tagged With: leadership, management

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