Leadership, competitiveness and best practices on business management
Workplace Survey, Findings 1.Workers are struggling to work effectively. When focus is compromised in pursuit of Collaboration, neither works well. 2. Effective workplaces balance focus and collaboration. Workplaces designed to enable collaboration without sacrificing employees’ ability to focus are more successful. 3. Choice drives performance and innovation. Employers who provide a spectrum of choices for when and where to work are seen as more innovative and have higher-performing employees.
Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. According to Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson, a motivational psychologist, the intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do.
1. Get specific. When you set yourself a goal, try to be as specific as possible. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, think about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you'll "eat less" or "sleep more" is too vague — be clear and precise. "I'll be in bed by 10pm on weeknights" leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, and whether or not you've actually done it.
Read more...If you need to make an argument about an issue about which you feel very strongly, don't use rhetoric. Tell a story instead.
For a recent example, think of how US Representative Keith Ellison spoke to the press before hearings convened by Representative Peter King to investigate the radicalization of American Muslims in the United States. After making his case about why Muslims were being unjustly singled out by the hearings, Ellison closed his statement with a story about Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a paramedic who perished on 9/11 while trying to rescue those trapped in the Twin Towers. Ellison described how some sought to tarnish Hamdani's sacrifice by calling attention to his Islamic faith. The story, and Ellison's emotional delivery, helped make his message powerful.
Read more...Your leadership skills are important in the workplace and other situations. Successful companies work because the vision of the leader is then shared by everyone else in the organization.
Effective leaders know who they are and where they are going. All successful leaders have a clear vision and decisiveness to achieve their goals. However, since every organization, circumstance, and leader calls for different courses of action, what is to be considered as "good" leadership depends on various factors such that what could be "good" leadership in one instance could be "bad" leadership in another.
Read more...According to research by McKinsey, about 70% of all changes in all organizations fail. After almost two decades of intense change from corporate reorganizations, new software systems, and quality-improvement projects, the failure rate remains at 70%.
Rick Maurer, describes four major reasons why changes fail, and sums up some key ideas from three significant business books:
1. Knowing-doing gap. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton coined the phrase “the knowing-doing gap” in their compelling book by the same title. They found that there’s a huge gap between what people know and what they do. All that knowledge not being applied, all that talent not being used costs organizations billions of dollars every year.
Read more...Collaborative decision-making can be difficult. However, using a simple six-step process, managers can structure their decision making processes in a way that promotes team and stakeholder collaboration.
Most decisions fail because of organizational rather than analytical issues. Poor leadership, a faulty problem-solving process, poor teamwork, and lack of commitment are often the underpinnings of failed decision processes. Failed decision processes lead to conflict, loss of credibility, diminished competitive advantage, increased costs, inadequate inclusion of stakeholders, and poor implementation. Here is a six-step process to help to improve organizational processes and teams to improve decision-making.
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