London

Joseph Nye - The Powers to Lead

• Good leadership matters. Good = effective and ethical. Good leaders share their luck.
• Leadership can be learned. It depends on nurture and on nature.
• Leaders help create and achieve group goals. Thus, effectiveness requires vision and interpersonal/organizational skills.
• Smart leaders need both soft and hard power skills: cooptive and command styles. Both transformational and transactional objectives & styles are useful.
• Leaders depend on and are partly shaped by followers. Presence/magnetism is inherent in some personalities but “charisma” is mostly bestowed by followers.
• Appropriate style depends on the context. There are ‘autocratic’ and ‘democratic’ situations, normal & crisis conditions, and routine and novel crises. Good diagnosis of the need for change (or not) is essential for contextual intelligence.
• Consultative style is more time costly but provides more information, creates buy-in and empowers followers.
• Managers maintain systems & institutions. They help a group decide how to decide.
• Leadership for crisis conditions requires advanced preparation, emotional maturity, and the ability to distinguish operational, analytical and political work.
• The information revolution is causing a secular shift int he context of postmodern organizations - from command to cooptive style. Empowered followers empower leaders.
• Reality testing, constant information seeking, and adjusting to change are essential for good consequences, but emotional intelligence and practical knowledge are more important than pure IQ and judgement.
• Three-dimensional ethical judgement requires attention to goals, means, and consequences for those inside and outside the leadership group. Creating identities in intergroup leadership is difficult but crucial.

Type	Soft Power	Hard Power	Smart Power
Behavior	Attract & coop	Threaten & induce	Capitalize on trends (create luck)
Sources	Inherent qualities & communication	Threats & intimidation, payments & rewards	Understand evolving environment
Manifestations	Charisma, persuasiveness, rethoric, examples	Hire, fire, promote	Adjust style to context and follower’s lead.

What got you here won’t get you

20 habits to move away from

• Winning too much: Need to win at all cost & in all situations.
• Adding too much value: Overwhelming desire to add our 2 cents.
• Passing judgement: Need to rate others & impose our standards on them.
• Making destructive comments: Needless sarcasm and cutting remarks.
• Starting with No/What/However: Basically says I am right and you are wrong.
• Telling the world how smart we are: No one cares.
• Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
• Negativity or “Why that won’t work”: Need to share our negative thoughts even when we were not asked.
• Withholding information: Refusal to share info in order to maintain an advantage over others.
• Failing to give proper recognition: Inability to give praise and reward.
• Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: Overestimating our contributions.
• Making excuses: Need to reposition our annoying behavior so that others excuse us for it.
• Clinging to the past: Deflect blame away from us.
• Playing favorites: Treating someone unfairly.
• Refusing to express regret: Inability to take responsibility for our actions.
• Not listening: Most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for our colleagues.
• Failing to express gratitude: Most basic form of bad manners.
• Punishing the messenger: Misguided need of attacking the ones that usually help us.
• Passing the buck: Blame anyone but yourself.
• An excessive need to be me: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they are who we are.

Change for the better

• Feedback: Never respond by arguing, write it down, consider later.
• Apologizing: If you made a mistake, swallow some pride.
• Telling the world: Define changes and let everyone know.
• Listening: Don’t interrupt. Just listen.
• Thanking: Do it both directly or in a public opportunity.
• Following up: Follow up on eliminating bad habits.
• Practicing feed-forward: Ask for future suggestions on where yoy should go with changes.

Remember

• The higher you are in an organization, the more your suggestions become orders.
• Don’t tell people how smart you are. No one gives a damn.
• Give away all your credit.
• Hearing people out does not make you dumber.
• Forgiveness means letting go of the hope for a better past.

Daniel H. Pink - Drive

• Drives or motivations:
  • Biological for survival: hunger, thirst, sex
  • Extrinsic motivation for rule-based work: carrots and sticks
  • Intrinsic motivation for non-routine conceptual tasks
• Elements:
  • Autonomy: to be autonomous & self-directed; people need autonomy over tasks (what), time (when), and techniques (how).
  • Mastery: extrinsic motivation requires compliance, intrinsic motivation demands engagement.
    • Is a mindset: requires capacity to see your abilities not as finite but infinitely improvable.
    • Is pain: demands efforts, grit & deliberate practice.
    • Is an asymptote: impossible to fully realize which is frustrating and alluring.
  • Purpose: Is a cause greater & more enduring than themselves. Expresses in:
    • Goals that use profit to reach purpose.
    • Words that emphasize more than self-interest.
    • Policies that allow people to pursue purpose on their own terms.

Barry Silverstein - Managing People

If your staff is happy, you are doing your job. People don't often leave jobs - and, in particular, bosses - they like. Treat people the right way and you will have disciples for life.

Managing 101

• Delegation does not mean abdicating your responsibility; even if you delegate it is important to always monitor progress.
• Praise should be given in public, criticism must be offered in private.
• A step-by-step plan of action for accomplishing your goal is crucial.

Managing Individuals

• Training (new employee orientations), on-the-job development, and formal training is key to employee’s success and motivation.
• Feedback should be given often, not just during annual reviews.
• Disciplining an employee is a process: Oral and written reprimands, proceeds to probation, and termination as a last resort.

Managing Teams

• Steps: define team’s roles and goals, choose its members, foster cooperation, and insist on accountability.
• Match team members to their tasks, formalize their roles, and set the course.
• Motivational exercises, events, and material rewards can all help build enthusiasm.
• A manager provides clear direction, resolves conflicts, and empowers the team to perform on its own.

Managing Projects

• Steps: define scope, allocate resources, organize your group, build a schedule, do a reality check, monitor your progress, analyze the outcome.
• Focussing on project scope helps you assess the resources, money and time needed.
• Define precise goals and objectives from the beginning of the project.
• Anticipating, accessing and managing risks is essential.
• Managing multiple projects takes strategic planning.

Leadership and Communication

• Leaders inspire trust, share their vision, formulate strategies, anticipate problems & opportunities, innovate, inspire & motivate.
• Managers execute plans, maintain order, and get things done.
• Active listening involves giving non-verbal cues to show that you are listening, rephrasing what has been said to show that you understand.

Management is doing things right (efficiency), leadership is doing the right things (effectivity).