Who is Coming to Eat Us?

Fascinating read. Turns out we need both stables and volatiles in an organization and we need someone asking the question - "Who is coming to eat us?"

Personally, I've got a little of both in me.

Michael Lopp on Stables and Volatiles

Stables are engineers who:

• Happily work with direction and appreciate that there appears to be a plan, as well as the calm predictability of a well-defined schedule.
• Play nice with others because they value an efficiently-run team.
• Calmly assess risk and carefully work to mitigate failure, however distant or improbable it might be.
• Tend to generate a lot of process because they know process creates predictably and measurability.
• Are known for their calm reliability.

Volatiles are the engineers who:

• Prefer to define strategy rather than follow it.
• Have issues with authority and often have legitimate arguments for anarchy.
• Can’t conceive of failing, and seek a thrill in risk.
• See working with others as time-consuming and onerous tasks, prefer to work in small, autonomous groups, and don’t give a shit how you feel.
• Often don’t build particularly beautiful or stable things, but they sure do build a lot.
• Are only reliable if it’s in their best interest.
• Leave a trail of disruption in their wake.

The Demonization Of Empress Wu

From Mike Dash … The Demonization Of Empress Wu. Really fascinating story, click through on the link below to read at Smithsonian.com

Has any female ruler provoked such controversy as Wu Zetian? Came to power in seventh century; remains only empress to rule China. Said to have murdered her sister, elder brothers, mother, even newborn child. But who was she really? Read full article

Relationship Skills for Entrepreneurs

From Marty Zwilling Every Entrepreneur Needs These Relationship Skills:

Michael Schutzler, author of the book “Inspiring Excellence – A Path to Exceptional Leadership.” … urges people to focus on developing a few key relationship skills

• Leadership is a learned behavior, not a character trait.
  
• Listening is the most important skill for a leader.
  
• Communicating and storytelling.
  
• Acknowledging contribution.
  
• Negotiation is a practical skill for every leader.
  
• Too many leaders are focused on personal ambition.

Accountability: The Difference Between A Vice President And A Janitor

Great leadership advice Steve Jobs gives all of his new VPs.
Steve Jobs On The Difference Between A Vice President And A Janitor:

the "Difference Between the Janitor and the Vice President."

Jobs tells the VP that if the garbage in his office is not being emptied regularly for some reason, he would ask the janitor what the problem is. The janitor could reasonably respond by saying, "Well, the lock on the door was changed, and I couldn't get a key."

An irritation for Jobs, for an understandable excuse for why the janitor couldn't do his job. As a janitor, he's allowed to have excuses.

"When you're the janitor, reasons matter," Jobs tells newly minted VPs, according to Lashinsky.

"Somewhere between the janitor and the CEO, reasons stop mattering," says Jobs, adding, that Rubicon is "crossed when you become a VP."

In other words, you have no excuse for failure. You are now responsible for any mistakes that happen, and it doesn't matter what you say.

Open Leadership

Great presentation from Charlene Li on Open Leadership from the South by SouthWest (SXSW) conference. Li you might remember is co-author of the book Groundswell. If you are a Dean or Department Chair or have any leadership aspirations, you should really give this idea of Open Leadership some consideration.

SXSW - Open Leadership

View more presentations from Charlene Li.

Winston Churchill Life Lessons

Henrik Edberg at The Positivity Blog shares some great life lessons from Winston Churchill. I excerpted the key headings; click the link to read more Winston Churchill’s Short Guide to Life: 6 Essential Fundamentals

fundamentals from Churchill on how to improve your life.

1. Focus on what you are doing right now.

‘It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.’

‘It is always wise to look ahead, but difficult to look further than you can see.’
...
2. Be concerned about action.

‘I never worry about action, but only about inaction’
...
3. Be an optimist.

‘The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.’

‘Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.’

‘I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.’
...
4. Be persistent. Don’t give up.

‘Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential’

‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’
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5. Don’t lose the enthusiasm.

‘Success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm.’
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6. Remember, most troubles never happen.

‘When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened’

What Makes a Good Boss?

Is your boss a good leader? Review this list of 18 characteristics - how does you boss score?

8 Characteristics of a Good Team Leader

Supportive:

• ready to go to bat for the team
  
• presents team needs to organization and organizational needs to team

Focused on Organizational Effectiveness:

• balances people and work
  
• keeps ‘productivity’ and ‘quality’ to the forefront

Grooms ‘replacements’:

• shares leadership role
  
• creates leaders

Good communicator

• willing to listen
  
• able to express

Innovator

• pursuer of progress
  
• and developer of people

Creates positive expectancy.

• sets high expectation levels
  
• sets and expects high standards

Models expected behaviours:

• consensus decision-making
  
• risk-taking
  
• empowering

Able to deal with problem team members:

• creative problem-solving
  
• coaching
  
• power to remove

Advice for Early 2009 - SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS

Great advice from Jim Carroll! Strategy for early 09 - Set bold short term goals - Trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll

SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS

Think about that. The economic news can literally smother the drive and enthusiasm of a team. Every day, folks are being beaten down by a surreal swarm of negative headlines. There's a smothering cloud of economic doom out there. People are dispirited, demoralized, and frankly, are coming in to work every day without any drive, initiative, and inclination to change.

Yet, we will one day be returning to a period of economic growth, and the graph seen here will make sense once again. Maybe it is already beginning to happen in some sectors. Maybe it might take some time yet.

Yet you can't let this attitude of pervasive negativity begin to clog up the arteries of your team. That's why you get out in front of this thing and SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS, That gives your team concise actions that can be pursued, and goals to achieve.

And it will leave your team well positioned for the economy as it does, inevitably, emerge from this current period of contraction.

How to Rev Up Your Idea Factory

Fascinating post from Jim Carroll. I love the idea of an organization as an idea factory. Where do your organization's ideas come from? Is it a small insulated group at the top? Or do you have the openness and communications infrastructure to solicit and nurture ideas from anywhere in the organization? What about external stimuli and ideas? Are the boundaries of your organization permeable? That is do you have the ability to bring in ideas from the outside?
Unfortunately, I see many decision makers becoming more insulated and relying on an increasingly smaller group of advisers. Likewise, in tough economic times travel budgets and discretionary spending are the first to get cut - so fewer go to conferences and less opportunities to bring in thought-leaders. I think the key takeaway here is that there are ways to keep the idea factory running. As Carroll says, "maybe not at full tilt, but running nevertheless." Some of these strategies include:

• pursuing remaining growth markets,
• attacking new markets,
• streamlining operations,
• building new brands, and
• finding new ways to grab customer mindshare.

The seven stages of economic grief - when do you innovate? - Trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll

there are many organizations entering a state of absolute paralysis. Idea factories are being turned off. The result is that we're not just entering an economic recession -- we're entering another idea recession, similar to what occurred with the last downturn starting in 2001.

What is so different time is the absolute speed with which ideas are shutting down -- the paralysis in some organizations at the leadership level is absolutely stunning. This got me thinking about the fast paced events of the last few weeks in the context of the seven stages of grief.
...

Then there are the innovation leaders. They're prepared to keep the idea factory running, maybe not at full tilt, but running nevertheless. They know that despite the fact that vast sections of the economy are tanking, there are still growth markets; opportunities to step ahead of your competitors. There are opportunities to attack new markets. To streamline operations, build new brands, grab customer mindshare in new ways.