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- How Amgen's CEO learned to listen
 Kevin Sharer says he was "an awful listener" for most of his career, looking for ways to cut short speakers and show them his way was best. The advice that turned his approach around came from Sam Palmisano, who is now IBM's chairman. "That was an epiphany for me because as you become a senior leader, it's a lot less about convincing people and more about benefiting from complex information and getting the best out of the people you work with," Sharer says. The McKinsey Quarterly (free registration)
(4/2012)      
- Leadership tips from a major-league knuckleballer
Life isn't easy for baseball pitchers like R.A. Dickey of the New York Mets, who make their name throwing the elusive knuckleball, writes John Baldoni. Dickey had to overcome adversity, injury and crises of confidence as he made his way to the major leagues -- and that holds lessons for any leader, Baldoni argues. "Dickey's rebirth as a pitcher and as a person highlights a key attribute of effective leadership: resilience," he writes. CBS MoneyWatch
(4/16)
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- Why didn't Kodak build Instagram?
Instagram's founders built a billion-dollar photo-sharing business in a matter of months, even as established film and photography giant Eastman Kodak spiraled into bankruptcy. That's a sign of just how powerful corporate culture can be in either spurring or stalling the innovation process, says Kodak board member Michael Hawley. "It's a little like asking why Hasbro didn't do Farmville, or why McDonald's didn't start Whole Foods," he explains. "Cultural patterns are pretty hard to escape once you get sucked into them." The New York Times (tiered subscription model)/Bits blog
(4/15)
- Michael Dell's tips for successful corporate takeovers
Taking over another company can be challenging for all concerned, says Dell founder Michael Dell. The key is to focus not on assimilating or subjugating your target, but rather on preserving and maximizing value, Dell argues. "We simply believe that making something better trumps taking absolute control of it," he says. Forbes
(4/16)
| Innovation and Creativity |
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- Why design beats technology
Technological advances are the most obvious form of innovation, but the biggest breakthroughs are actually born of a subtler, more subjective process of creative design, writes Irving Wladawsky-Berger. That's because design principles deal with the way people and technologies interact, allowing innovators to address bigger, thornier societal problems. "[M]ost of the really hard issues are not technical at all. They are human," Wladawsky-Berger writes. The Wall Street Journal/CIO Report blog
(4/16)
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What is the ethical climate like in your organization?
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We always uphold the highest moral and ethical standards |
53.70%
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We have an occasional ethical or moral lapse |
35.43%
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We have regular ethical lapses |
7.95%
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Our climate is pretty unethical/immoral |
2.93%
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"Occasional" isn't good enough: 45% of you are at risk for being a trending topic on Twitter or being splashed across thousands of blogs. Even an "occasional" moral/ethical lapse can turn into a colossal PR nightmare for your organization. At the least, those lapses erode your culture unless you quickly jump on top of the issue, correct it and get a firm message out to the organization about what is/is not acceptable. If you simply think about treating others the same way you treat a family member, you'll reduce the frequency and severity of those lapses. -- Mike Figliuolo is managing director of ThoughtLeaders and author of "One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership."
Discuss these results.
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How well do your team members understand how their jobs contribute to your bottom line?
 | Extremely well -- there's a direct link between their role and our profit |
| Well -- they generally understand their role's impact on profit |
| Somewhat -- they know their work is important but the link to profit is fuzzy |
| Not at all -- they have no understanding of how they contribute to our profit |
| Engage. Innovate. Discuss. |
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- How to keep your workers happy
Most people who quit their jobs do so not because they're underpaid, but rather because they're understimulated and unfulfilled, writes Joel Garfinkle. To reduce turnover and boost productivity, give your team problems to solve and the leeway to make their own decisions. "People tend to enjoy their work more when there is some sort of challenge involved," Garfinkle writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership
(4/16)
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- Would modern voters have elected Abraham Lincoln?
Abraham Lincoln would have struggled to win an election today, his biographers say. The president refused to feign a love of hunting, had no interest in frontier culture, was overtly intellectual, flip-flopped constantly and liked to make self-deprecating jokes. "That ability to laugh at yourself ... means taking the world seriously, but not taking yourself so seriously at every moment," says presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. "It is in such short supply in our campaigns." National Public Radio (text and audio)
(4/10)
 | We aren't planning on being the next anyone else; we are planning on making everyone else want to be the next us."
--Michael Dell, founder of Dell, as quoted in Forbes
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Recent SmartBrief on Leadership Issues:
- Monday, April 16, 2012
- Friday, April 13, 2012
- Thursday, April 12, 2012
- Wednesday, April 11, 2012
- Tuesday, April 10, 2012
| | | Lead Editor: James daSilva
Contributing Editor: Ben Whitford
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