Council and Leadership

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you. There’s a difference between managers and leaders.
Ask them what that difference is and they may have a bit more difficulty. Suddenly the words become amorphous and undefined. Somehow leadership is an intangible – a charismatic component that some people have and others simply don’t. That’s why, according to the ubiquitous “they”, it is such a rarity.

Wrong.
The difference between being a manager and being a leader is simple. Management is a career. Leadership is a calling.
You don’t have to be tall, well-spoken and good looking to be a successful leader. You don’t have to have that “special something” to fulfill the leadership role.
(more…)

The problem with ‘harnessing the intelligence of an organization is that it is so obviously a good idea that many mangers and leaders are convinced they are doing it already. After all, the leadership team is few, and the organization is many; the organization as a whole knows more than any one person; a great idea doesn’t care who has it. Everyone knows this stuff. Well, we all think that we know it, but it remains the case that remarkably few organization put this idea into effective practice.

Here are a few questions that may help to reveal whether your approach to harnessing the intelligence of your organization is real and thoroughgoing, or whether it is more of a good intent – something that occasionally produces a good result, but more by serendipity than by design. (more…)

There are always problems and often there is more than one solution to the problem. The task of leadership is to know the right path to lead an organization, while the task of management is to know the right way to trudge that path. As leaders, we know that the best solutions or the optimal outcome is not necessarily the easiest, the clearest, or even the best reasoned. Sometimes there is more than meets the eye.

Leadership quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
When I first heard about the term “creative problems solving,” I learned a valuable exercise. I was told to create a list of ten solutions to each problem you encounter. You may find that the first or second solution is optimal. However, learning how to exercise the mind and find nine more solutions, teaches you how to think outside the box, how to see every angle to a problem, and how to determine some very creative solutions.
(more…)

As a leader and manager, someone responsible for the results obtained by others, are you the boss you need to be? Are you getting the best from your people, and from those you need but don’t control? Are you fully satisfying the ever-rising expectations of your firm and its customers?

Equally important, are you meeting your own expectations? How would you like to work to develop yourself? Are you good enough to achieve your own aspirations? Are you ready for increased responsibility?
These are critical questions all bosses must ask if they want to be fully effective. Why? The two of us have spent nearly 60 years in total studying and practicing management, and again and again we’ve made a troubling observation: Most managers grow and develop to a certain point, and then they stop. They reach the “Plateau of Good Enough.” Perhaps they struggled at first as new managers, but they quickly learned how it’s done in their organizations, how to cope with the challenges they typically face every day, and they’ve come to feel comfortable.
(more…)

It’s gospel that you have to cultivate your personal brand, particularly if you have designs on the C suite. But because everyone has a brand nowadays (Tom Peters describes it as “your promise to the marketplace and the world”) simply having one is insufficient if you want to advance. You can’t just be known as “the guy who speaks Spanish” or “the programmer who can explain things well” or “that woman in legal who gets things done fast.” That’s nice—but there are a million of you, and in a globalized world, your company can find an alternatives to you fast. That’s why you need to establish yourself as a thought leader. Good employees and good executives are nice to have. Thought leaders are irreplaceable—and indispensible.
(more…)