Raven's Brain v1.0: Leadership

Handling Conflict in Teams: Divide Or Conquer by Diana Mclain Smith

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:22:31 GMT

In a recent post I mentioned Diana Mclain Smith's new book Divide or Conquer- How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength. Search queries pour in to my blog each day with phrases containing some form of "dealing with" or "handling" conflict. It's good to see folks are interested in learning how to work through confrontations and conflicts, and Diana's new book, released last month (June 2008), will serve as an excellent resource for those looking to handle/deal with/manage/work through conflict and how to grow from these situations.

I already consider Divide or Conquer to be a must-read for CEOs, middle managers and newbies to the business world. There is so much to learn about conflict, confrontations and building strong relationships, and this book is a great place to start.

Diana's ideas on conflict are not only interesting and based in the real world, they will help anyone improve their important business relationships and get more out of them. With Bill Gates recent departure from Microsoft, I found Smith's thoughts on the Gates/Balmer relationship at Microsoft timely and interesting. Comparing their positive relationship to that of the broken, and highly publicized relationship betwen Scully and Jobs from Apple helped show just how critical good relationships are to a company's success. It also highlighted the fact that poor or broken relationships can lead to serious damage to both the organization (external) and it's people (internal).

I always enjoy a little humor with my reads and Smith's book makes for an interesting, smart and easy read with a high return. You'll learn how to develop strong, flexible business relationships and understand how they affect both your own and the organization's success. You'll get ideas on how to reshape your thinking and avoid "framing" people through the practical advice, and you'll learn to how to s-l-o-w down your thinking and assumptions so you can have real, productive conversations.

If you're interested in learning more about how conflict, relationships and teams affect your perfonal/professional success, definitely check out Divide or Conquer- How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength.

Here are some links with more about author Diana Smith and her new book Divide or Conquer- How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength:

About the book: http://www.dianamclainsmith.com/dmsmith-book-overview.htm
About Diana: http://www.dianamclainsmith.com/dmsmith-bio.htm
Podcasts: http://www.dianamclainsmith.com/dmsmith-podcasts.htm (Why Teams Fail., Why Divide or Conquer?, Why Stronger or Weaker?)
CMM Podcast: The Cranky Middle Manager Show #148 Conflict in Teams- Diana Mclain Smith.
ManageSmarter excerpt: Team Strength: The Life and Death of a Relationship
LeadershipTurn: Book review: Divide or Conquer: How Great Teams Turn Conflict into Strength
800 CEO READ review: Divide or Conquer
800 CEO READ audio interview: Diana McLain Smith: the author experience

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Blogs, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Conflict

Podcast: Earning Trust,the four main components

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:18:30 GMT

David Maister has a fabulous podcast titled Earning Trust. It runs a tight 16 minutes and is an interesting and informative discussion on the subject of building trust. In this podcast David talks about the four main components of trustworthiness:

Credibility - about words (builds trust)
Reliability - about actions, (builds trust)
Intimacy - about emotions, (builds trust)
Self-Orientation - about motives, (reduces trust)

I believe these four dimensions to be a valuable way to assess my own behavior and can see how they can help anyone develop trust. Leaders cannot lead effectively without trust so learning how to build trust is critical to your success. Listen to Earning Trust here: http://davidmaister.com/podcasts.archives/5/55/ to get started!

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Podcast, Trustworthiness, Trust, Developing Trust

Good Podcast: Conflict in Teams w/ Diana Mclain Smith

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:22:40 GMT

I just started Diana Mclain Smith's new book Divide or Conquer- How Great Teams Turn Conflict Into Strength and am loving it. I was happy to see that Wayne over at the Cranky Middle Manager did a podcast with Diana and had to listen: The Cranky Middle Manager Show #148 Conflict in Teams- Diana Mclain Smith.

I highly recommend this book and have just started it. If you're interested in learning more about Diana or her new book detailing the in's and out's of team conflict, check out these resources, including three brief podcasts of her own:

About the book: http://www.dianamclainsmith.com/dmsmith-book-overview.htm
About Diana: http://www.dianamclainsmith.com/dmsmith-bio.htm
Podcasts: http://www.dianamclainsmith.com/dmsmith-podcasts.htm (Why Teams Fail., Why Divide or Conquer?, Why Stronger or Weaker?)

And of course don't forget to check out the Cranky Middle Manager for more excellent podcasts. Others I've enjoyed recently include The Cranky Middle Manager #147 Ken Blanchard Is Here and The Cranky Middle Manager #144 Big Ideas to Big Results- Michael Kanazawa.

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Blogs, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Conflict

300+ Inspiring Leadership, Management and Personal Development Blogs

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:23:48 GMT

Earlier this month David Zinger posted a list of 300 bloggers who inspire him - and Raven's Brain was fortunate enough to make the list! One of the things I enjoy about blogging is sharing the many interesting and useful resources I stumble upon in my web travels - and so I share David's list of 300 excellent blogs with a positive focus. Some I've visited and others are new to me. I can't wait to dig through and find out what I've been missing!

Zinger's list: 300 bloggers who inspire me:

And here are a few more leadership, management, business and development blogs that inspire me:

Enjoy!

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Blogs, Personal Development, Personal Growth, Management Blog

Marshall Goldsmith Video on Managing Up

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 02:20:46 GMT

The Harvard Business School Publishing site has a 9 minute video with Marshall Goldsmith, author of the must-read book What Got You Here Won't Get You There. I found the discussion interesting but had trouble viewing the entire embedded video over at 800-CEO-READ Blog. You might try the HBSP site directly if you have trouble with buffering:

How to Influence Up and Become a Future Leader

http://conversationstarter.hbsp.com/2008/06/how_to_influence_up_and_become.html

As I said, interesting and if you haven't read Goldsmith's book, you might want to pick it up or add to your reading list!

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Books, Marshall Goldsmith, What Got you here won't get you there, Managing Up

Jerry Manas is Managing the Gray Areas

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:26:40 GMT

As mentioned in an earlier post, I have a forthcoming book review on the e-x-c-e-l-l-e-n-t new management and leadership book Managing the Gray Areas, from author Jerry Manas. It's not your typical leadership book, it's written by a noted PM and leadership guru and is quite interesting. I'm expecting some great insights from guest voice Lisa Forsyth's pending review and am sure many will want to read Gray Areas - it's certainly on my list of must-read leadership books for this year.

If you're already intrigued and want to learn more now - check out Jerry's recent article at PMWorld: How to address the “Gray Areas” ! Tough Questions for Leaders (PDF). Here's an excerpt:

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.” - Francis Bacon
Leaders face dilemmas every day. Decisions we make are translated into real-world outcomes, with each decision cascading into other actions. Sometimes, we mentally frame difficult choices and decisions in terms that simplify them—at least on the surface. We turn them into black or white just to get some clarity around them, yet in reality, they are not black or white, not either/or—they are gray.
How we address these difficult choices—as black and white, or as gray—will determine the feel of our organization. It will determine how people interact, and how work gets done. It will determine the strategies of both our present and our future.
Read complete paper in English (PDF)

PMWorld (scroll to bottom) also included some background on Jerry and his book, and I'm always interested in learning more about the folks whose books I read and blogs I follow:

An organizational architect with a specialty in project management and virtual team dynamics, he is passionate about helping leaders create flexible, yet integrated, organizations and teams. Pulling lessons from history, science, and the arts, he writes and consults on principle-based leadership and project management, using the cornerstones of simplicity, engagement, and trust. Jerry is president of The Marengo Group, co-founder of the popular blog site, PMThink! (www.pmthink.com), and a member of The Creating We Collaborative.

Visit his website at www.marengogroup.com.

I received an email this week announcing that the archived Webinar Managing the Gray Areas–Leading with Humanity is now available for viewing. You can access this free and informative Webinar from Jerry Manas here:http://www.rmcproject.com/webinar/webinar-grayareas.aspx. If you're PMP certified you'll be happy to hear this webinar is registered with PMI for one PDU - another easy way to keep your accredication current. And if you're looking to purchase Managing The Gray Areas, check out this great deal:

Also, to purchase the book Managing the Gray Areas at an exclusive Webinar Discount of 40%, please visit the following page:
http://store.rmcproject.com/Detail.bok?no=135
To earn the discount, simply enter the coupon code GRAY40 in the provided field prior to checkout. Also, please feel free to forward this and discount code to any friends, colleagues or co-workers who you believe may be interested.

Women Leaders: Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi On Leadership

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:11:49 GMT

Leading Blog has an article discussing some of Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi's thoughts on leadership development and also notes five skills essential to solid leaders:

Competence. You must be an expert in your function or area of expertise. You will become known for that.
Take a Stand. You must be known for your courage and confidence to act and say what you believe is right.
Communication Skills. Communication skills are critical. You can never over-invest in them.
Coaching. Surround yourself with good mentors. Listen. Learn. Your mentor is a major force.
Your Moral Compass. Have the strength and courage to do what’s morally right, not what’s expedient. Your moral compass must be your true north.

Some interesting insights from one of today's noted women leaders. For a brief, concise list - these five items are applicable to effective leaders. As always, you can go on and on over what should be added or taken away, but lets take this list for what it highlights - brief, practical leadership points. I like the fourth one - most people overlook the importance of continuing to develop in your particular field, while also growing on a professional level (think soft skills, self awareness, personal growth, emotional intelligence, etc.). I also like the mindset of "each one of PepsiCo’s 18,000 employees is a leader" - it encourages a "we" mentality and working toward a single purpose. I like Nooyi's leadership insights but I still prefer Coca-Cola ;)

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Development, Women In Management, Women Leaders

300 Free Employee Engagement Keys

Mon, 12 May 2008 01:01:37 GMT

My recent post A to Z quotes for Employee Engagement was a piece of a larger effort at the Employee Engagement Network, and has been published as an e-book (pdf) that includes over 300 Free Employee Engagement Keys from 12 different authors. Here's the plug from David Zinger:

Click here to download or read a PDF copy of the Keys of Employee Engagement: 12 Authors and 300 Ideas Embedded in Their Employee Engagement Alphabets. The contributors to this 39 page E-book from the Employee Engagement Network were: Tim Wright, Terrence Seamon, Steve Roesler, Lisa Forsyth, Raven Young, Robert Morris, Ken Milloy, Stephen McPherson, George Reavis, Ian Buckingham, and myself. Angela Maiers contributed a bonus student engagement alphabet.

Download PDF: http://www.davidzinger.com/wp-content/uploads/abcs-employee-engagement-keys.pdf

It was fun to be a part of this initiative that began as a blog post from Zinger and resulted in a 39 page e-book, 12 different takes on an employee engagement alphabet. In Zinger's announcement post he talks about the effort and offers some suggestions on how to use the keys to your advantage:

Scan the authors to find ideas.

Read the book as a primer to create your own alphabet.

Modify it to launch a team or project group exercise on engagement.

Choose a letter each day and focus on that letter to enhance your own engagement or the engagement of others.

Share the alphabets with others at work.

Offer the book as a free resource during employee engagement workshops.

Develop your own applications based on your interest and focus on employee engagement.

Read more here: http://www.davidzinger.com/300-free-employee-engagement-keys-651/#more-651

You can find out more about each of the authors by checking out their profile at the Employee Engagement Network (mine is here), and you'll also find tons of other great EE related forums, groups and more. Check it out: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/

posted by Raven at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Personal Growth, Engagement, Employee Engagement Network, Employee Engagement, Personal Development, Motivating Employees

A to Z quotes for Employee Engagement

Fri, 02 May 2008 21:02:22 GMT

As mentioned in an earlier post, I'm a member of The Employee Engagement Network. I recently posted Lisa's list of A-Z words, part of a side project for the EEN: Alphabet Soup- Employee Engagement from A-Z, and am adding my list to the mix (below). First, here's a quick overview of the effort from EEN host David Zinger:

"We have 6 contributors to this project. I will offer this free e-book early in May. If anyone else wishes to create a list, please do so and let me know so that I can include it. The early copy of this looks spectacular. We already have 20 pages of outstanding concepts and ideas to stimulate the thinking of people interested in employee engagement. This will be a great resource document. I encourage you to be a part of it.

Click here to read my article on employee engagement from A to Z. If you blog or write I'd love you to create your own list. Once you do let me know and I will put all the lists together and create a free E-book that we will offer on this site."
Read more about David Zinger's A-Z project: http://www.davidzinger.com/employee-engagement-26-keys-from-a-to-z-572/
View David Zinger's EEN Profile: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/profile/DavidZinger

Read more here about the EEN here: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/

Check out the recently released "one sentence of advice on employee engagement" PDF: EENF6OneSentenceofEmployeeEngagementAdvice.pdf

Below is my list of Employee Engagement from A-Z - I chose to use famous quotes (some more famous than others) for added spice:

Atmosphere: "Devising and maintaining an atmosphere in which others can put a dent in the universe is the leader's creative act." --Warren Bennis
Beginnings: "The beginning is the most important part of the work." --Plato
Communication: "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." --George Bernard Shaw
Delegate: "Delegating works, provided the one delegating works, too." --Robert Half
Empower: "The vision is really about empowering workers, giving them all the information about what's going on so they can do a lot more than they've done in the past." --Bill Gates
Flexibility: "The bend in the road is not the end of the road, unless you refuse to take the turn." -- Unknown
Growth: "There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits to the human capacity for intelligence, imagination, and wonder." --Ronald Reagan
Humility: "It is amazing what you can accomplish when you do not care who gets the credit." --Harry S. Truman
Ingenuity: "Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." --George S. Patton
Jest: "Jesters do oft prove prophets." --William Shakespeare
Keys: "All one has to do is hit the right keys at the right time and the instrument plays itself." --Johann Sebastian Bach
Learn: "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." -- Dr. Seuss
Moments: "Learn from the past, set vivid, detailed goals for the future, and live in the only moment of time over which you have any control: now." --Denis Waitley
Now: "Forever is composed of nows." --Emily Dickinson
Objectives: "First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end." --Aristotle
Profits: "When we cast our bread upon the waters, we can presume that someone downstream whose face we will never know will benefit from our action, as we who are downstream from another will profit from that grantor's gift." --Maya Angelou
Question: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning." --Albert Einstein
Results: "When I have fully decided that a result is worth getting, I go ahead of it and make trial after trial until it comes." --Thomas Edison
Success: "Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time." - Arnold H. Glasow
Try: "Do, or do not. There is no try." --Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
Uncertainty: "True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information." --Winston Churchill
Vision: "A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done." --Ralph Nader
Why: "He who has a why to live can bear almost any how." -- Friedrich Nietzsche
Xerox: "Once the Xerox copier was invented, diplomacy died." --Andrew Young
Yearnings: "We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams." --Jimmy Carter
Zest: "True happiness comes from the joy of deeds well done, the zest of creating things new." --Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Hope you enjoyed my list. Stay tuned for more on the A-Z effort. I'll point to the e-book with everyone's alphabet once it's published later this month (May 9th-ish). For more on the Employee Engagement Network: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/

Don't think the EEN is for you? check out this intro from Zinger:

Note: This is an open network and I encourage leaders, line managers, supervisors, HR practitioners, and any employee to join us. You don't need to write a book, consult, or be an employee engagement blogger. This community needs the strength of a pluralism of voices.

Sound good? It should! the EEN is a friendly place to interact with others, learn new things, develop in a variety of areas, and contiue growing in new directions. Check it out, yo!

Current Forum's at the Employee Engagement Network:

posted by Raven at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Personal Growth, Engagement, Employee Engagement Network, Employee Engagement, Personal Development, Motivating Employees, Employee Morale

Employee Engagement: Sentenced To Engagement

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:22:20 GMT

A post from Lisa's bad brain, guest voice inside Raven’s Brain.

Over at the Employee Engagement Network network host David Zinger started a forum to capture employee engagement in one sentence. All responses, including mine, were compiled and published in .PDF by Zinger:

Read the 19 responses from the last forum on one sentence of advice on employee engagement: EENF6OneSentenceofEmployeeEngagementAdvice.pdf

My sentence became the first letter in my Alphabet Soup: Employee Engagement from A-Z post, but I'd have to say my favorite "employee engagement in one sentence" comes from Zinger himself. I'm including his intro as it provides an overview for his sentence:

I love this one sentence forum. You don't have to take a long time to post but your sentence packs a lot in it. I will certainly make a PDF of this for us and feature it for new network participants in the future. I'll take a stab at this and as I do I realize I am idealistic, but given the alternative, it seems reasonable to me:
Create caring and robust connections between every employee and their work, customers, leaders, managers, and the organization to achieve results that matter to everyone in this sentence.
Read more from the forum that generated the PDF: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=1986438%3ATopic%3A4543
View the PDF of all 19 responses included in the "one sentence of advice on employee engagement" challenge: EENF6OneSentenceofEmployeeEngagementAdvice.pdf

Stay tuned for details on the the A-Z PDF that will be published over at EEN soon! For reference, here's an earlier post from this site discussing the EEN and my Alphabet Soup post over at the network: http://ravenyoung.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!17376F4C11A91E0E!4227.entry.

Until next time,

Lisa

posted by Lisa Forsyth at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Personal Growth, Engagement, Employee Engagement Network, Employee Engagement, Personal Development, Motivating Employees, Employee Morale

Alphabet Soup: Employee Engagement from A-Z

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:17:20 GMT

Lisa and I are members of The Employee Engagement Network and are enjoying the interaction with different folks on all things EE related. The Employee Engagement Network was started by David Zinger earlier this year and membership continues to grow each day. If you are interested in learning more about employee engagement, or if you're already an engagement guru, check the network out and consider joining. The EE network all ready boasts members like Rosa Say (www.sayleadershipcoaching.com ), Phil Geryshack (makeitgreat.typepad.com and www.slackermanager.com), Kevin Eikenberry (Author Remarkable Leadership, www.kevineikenberry.com/blogs) , Wayne Turmel (www.crankymiddlemanager.com), Skip Reardon (www.SixDisciplines.blogspot.com), Michael Kanazawa (www.bigideastobigresults.com) and of course David Zinger (www.davidzinger.com And www.slackermanager.com) , along with a host of other interesting folks with a variety of backgrounds and experience in employee engagement. It's a great group of people to interact with and learn from. Check it out here: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/

Now on to the actual point of this post..

Lisa did a great post on employee engagement over at the network blog: Alphabet Soup: Employee Engagement from A-Z, that is actually part of a larger effort by Zinger to capture an A-Z list of engagement words/phrases from other members of the EE network. His list is here: Employee Engagement: 26 Keys From A to Z. Here's a brief excerpt from Lisa's post:

I don’t claim to be an expert on Employee Engagement, but I couldn’t resist using David Zinger’s invitation for submissions of an alphabet with the keys to engagement as an opportunity to capture what I have learned so far. These “keys” are a combination of things I have discovered through my own experiences, what I have learned from different management and leadership books, (just finished: The Dip; just started: Remarkable Leadership; up next: Dream Manager), and the insights I have picked up from various voices on the web (like those here at EEN).

Aspirations
Understand what your people aspire to and empower them to reach it--it is their aspirations that make them unique, and they are most engaged when working towards them.

Balance
Sustaining engagement is about maintaining balance, yet organizations still reward (and rely on) people, usually the self-propelled and energetic, who sacrifice this balance at their expense when it serves the purpose of an organization’s success. We can’t force balance, but we can create the conditions for it when we understand the difference between effective and ineffective engagement and recognize its characteristics. To employ the analogy used by authors Jones Loflin and Todd Musig, ineffective engagement can feel like Juggling Elephants—we must learn how to become the ringmaster of your circus and teach the people you support how to do the same.

Read the rest here: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1986438%3ABlogPost%3A6386

Read more about Lisa: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/profile/LisaForsyth

Other posts from Lisa: Peer Code Reviews Yield More Than a Goodnight's Sleep & Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager

As always - Enjoy!

posted by Raven at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Personal Growth, Engagement,Employee Engagement Network, Employee Engagement, Personal Development, Motivating Employees, Employee Morale

20 Benefits of Peer to Peer Coaching

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:51:39 GMT

Rosa Say has a great post from last month where she details 20 Benefits of Peer to Peer Coaching (P2PC). I always enjoy Rosa's writing style - easy to digest, solid info and tips for use today in the real world. This is another excellent post from her that not only discusses the importance and benefits of P2PC, detailing "The 5 Steps of Peer-to-Peer Coaching", but also outlines how to add P2PC as part of your own organizational culture. If you're not familiar with Rosa's blog, Talking Story, you might be a bit confused to some of the terms and phrases she uses. Her focus is on "Managing With Aloha" and you'll find this theme throughout her blog, site and writing. It's an interesting coaching/leadership model and, even if you don't want to dig into the terminology, the post is still filled with tons of solid tips and info and worth the read. Here's a great clip from the P2PC post:

One of our assumptions is that "Peer" means for everyone and between everyone as it takes hold in a company culture, with Peer meaning every employee-turned-business-partner (which is the MWA way within our ‘Ohana in Business™ model). New employees may ease into the culture starting with the conventional coaching by their manager, but eventually P2PC becomes the way that everyone at every level of an organization coaches everyone else respectfully and with that positive expectancy of "Who better to learn from [about improving myself] than from these people who know me best by merit of working with me most often?"
Read more here: http://www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/talkingstory/2008/03/the-benefits-of.html

That last sentence makes a great case for peer to peer coaching. Sure you need the right culture, where feedback is accepted and expected - respectfully, but the benefits are worth it. Here are a few nuggets from Rosa's list of 20 benefits of P2PC:

~3~ Respect grows within an organization when there is the assumption that sound, wise, and thoughtful answers are to be found within the other people working there. We respect each other's intelligence, and each other's capacity for even more learning. Recently someone championing an elder project told me "When an elder dies a library burns." I think that is true of everyone, even children.
~10~ The Law of Reciprocity directly affects workplace relationships. In the MWA way of doing it, people are expected to both initiate P2PC and make room for the P2PC conversation as gracious and generous receivers, willing to coach others. The giving and receiving is highly regarded in evaluating working relationships and the performance levels which should naturally flow when those relationships are mutually rewarding. [More on the Law of Reciprocity is here.]
~15~ Eventually, departmental silos can be minimized or disappear altogether when P2PC spreads via the friendship networks within companies. A "coach" becomes anyone within an organization who you suspect may have a great answer for you ~ anyone.
Read more here: http://www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/talkingstory/2008/03/the-benefits-of.html

It's easy to look at coaching as a touchy-feely, foo-foo activity that most teams/organizations don't have time for, but you will find that most high performing teams have open, respectful communications that often contain some level of P2PC.

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Employee Engagement
Tags: Leadership, P2PC, Peer To Peer Coaching, Professional Development, Personal Growth, Management

Leadership Insights: Miles’ Law and Six Other Maxims of Management

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 21:31:32 GMT

Michael McKinney over at Leading Blog wrote a post on Miles’ Law and Six Other Maxims of Management. I'm a Gen-Xer and hadn't heard of Rufus E. Miles, Jr., his "law" or the accompanying six maxims and found McKinney's post both informative and interesting. The post states these thoughts from Miles were published in 1978 but here we are 30 years later and they're still relevant. Here's an excerpt to get you started:

Rufus E. Miles, Jr. (1910-1996) was an assistant secretary under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and six H.E.W. secretaries. He developed from “memorable encounters with reality,” Miles’ Law and Six Other Maxims of Management. The law states: Where you stand depends on where you sit. He codified that which we should know intuitively. We see things and form judgments of things from our own perspective. We need to discipline ourselves to see things from other’s vantage point. To his law he added six maxims:

• Maxim 1: The responsibility of every manager exceeds his authority, and if he tries to increase his authority to equal his responsibility, he is likely to diminish both.

• Maxim 2: Managers at any level think they can make better decisions than either their superiors or their subordinates; most managers therefore seek maximum delegations from their superiors and make minimum delegations to their subordinates.

Read the complete post here: http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/2008/02/miles_law_and_six_other_maxims.html

You'll need to go to the post to read the rest. To learn more abot Miles Law check out this related link: The Origin and Meaning of Miles' Law (click enlarge page size to view article).

posted by Raven Young at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Management, Miles Law, Rufus E. Miles, Jr., Miles Law and Six Maxims

Podcast Interview with 'Remarkable Leadership' Author Kevin Eikenberry

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 02:50:19 GMT

I don't think I ever got to posting a review of Remarkable Leadership, one of the better leadership books published in 2007. Many good reviews and interviews already exist (here, here, here and here, to get started) and I recently came across an episode of The Cranky Middle Manager from January where author Kevin Eikenberry stopped by for a 30 minute interview via podcast: The Cranky Middle Manager Show 129- Remarkable Leadership with Kevin Eikenberry. More good stuff from CMM Host Wayne Turmel and great insights from Eikenberry make this podcast worthwhile.

Read more about the podcast and listen (or download .mp3 for later) here: http://cmm.thepodcastnetwork.com/2008/01/25/the-cranky-middle-manager-show-129-remarkable-leadership-with-kevin-eikenberry/

Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Manager

Sun, 06 Jan 2008 19:57:17 GMT

A post from Lisa's bad brain, guest voice inside Raven’s Brain.

Nick McCormick's book, Lead Well and Prosper: 15 Successful Strategies for Becoming a Good Managerr, delivers exactly what it promises-"a collection of simple, short, and sweet strategies to help managers at any level improve." I picked up Lead Well and Prosper because of its immediate appeal to me--it was short at just over 90 pages with the appendix, gave brief employee-manager scenarios that got right to the point, and had a list of do's, don'ts, and actions for all 15 strategies.

The strategy that resonated most with me was "Embrace the Uncomfortable." Nick McCormick notes that "we have a tendency to put off the things we don't like to do," "unfortunately, when we don't do things outside our comfort zone, we don't grow." The author's recommendation for this strategy:

Do:
Make a commitment to venture outside your comfort zone
Reward yourself when you do

Don't:
Put things off. You suffer because you don't grow, and others suffer as well.

Action:
Pick a task you've been avoiding for some time. Knock it out tomorrow before 8:30am. Treat yourself to a nice lunch. Repeat!

This particular strategy resonates with me because I lean far to the introverted side of the spectrum. I have been managing a team for two years now that has more than doubled in size. Managing has always been somewhat outside my comfort zone because of my tendency to live in my own head (even my own team meetings make me nervous), so I appreciate all the quick advice I can get to tackle the challenges holding me back. Obviously, with growing responsibility comes the growing need to present comfortably in front of different groups of people, and I tend to procrastinate delivering a presentation no matter how complete it is, because I don't think it is at the level of perfection I need it to be in order to be comfortable presenting. This is crazy--I always have more data and detail than expected. But I don't want to present, so it isn't quite done. The strategy I adopted for myself is to schedule the meeting as soon as the first draft is complete--I won't want to reschedule because it is hard enough to coordinate in the first place!

There are a number of different opinions on the specific number and definition of traits a good manager must possess--you will not find experts on management referenced to defend the set of characteristics all great managers must possess in McCormick's book, nor will you find detailed behavioral analysis in the employee-manager scenarios. What you will find is practical advice for overcoming some of those things you might feel are holding you back, and that to me, is worth it. Thank you Nick, for a book I will keep on-hand when I need quick advice for an immediate situation.

Posted by Lisa Forsyth at Raven's Brain under Leadership
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Books, Lead Well And Prosper, Personal Growth