Every week, we publish an exciting summary of the best articles, videos, events, and posts that relate to innovative management. This week, check out these summaries of 6 GREAT articles that inspire better management. Enjoy!
Timeless Leadership for a New World
ChangeThis ß Recommended
True visionaries often see possibilities where others “see difficulty and dead ends.
Our deeply-wired-in sense of what makes a good leader is still there. You can see it every day in how we respond to the leaders in our organizations. Some leaders are merely “appointed”: they may have the title and the corner office, but people simply don’t commit to them. They have employees, but they don’t have followers.
Then there are what I call “accepted” leaders. Sometimes they don’t even have the external signs of leadership—they may not have the top job or the big paycheck, but people gravitate toward them. People want to work for and with them; teams coalesce around them and achieve great things.
What’s the difference?” The Accepted Leader is: Far-sighted, Passionate, Courageous, Wise, Generous, Trustworthy
Announcing the 2012-13 HBR/McKinsey M-Prize
When we launched the Harvard Business Review/McKinsey M-Prize for Management Innovation last year, our goal was to surface the world’s most amazing management practices, and to highly those individuals around the world who are reinventing “the technology of human accomplishment.”
Working with our partners, we teed up three knotty management challenges:
- How can we use the new “social tools” of the Web to reinvent how we lead, manage and organize?
- How can we “banish bureaucracy” and create organizations that are radically empowering?
- How can we reinvent capitalism for the long-term by strengthening the “moral capital” of our organizations and embedding a deep sense of stewardship?
Every Leader is an Artist
The same attributes that distinguish great from mediocre artists distinguish exceptional leaders from their ordinary counterparts. The same attributes that distinguish great from mediocre artists distinguish exceptional leaders from their ordinary counterparts. The best leaders and artists give us perspective on our social condition (good or bad) and greater appreciation of our world, ourselves, and our choices. Moreover, they challenge, excite, comfort, and motivate. They bring us closer together by providing a forum for shared experiences and by forging a sense of community. Leadership and art both animate social encounters. They can change our lives in ways that are as invigorating and real as being hit by a wave.
12 artistic criteria for judging the art of particular leaders. To appreciate their leadership, we should ask about its ...
- Intent. Do they make an express commitment to achieve certain exceptional ends?
- Focus. Do they highlight certain features of the business environment over others to separate the important from the trivial?
- Skill. Do they demonstrate mastery or virtuosity in critical aspects of business; do they possess a foundation for understanding people, organizations, and the way work is accomplished?
- Form. Do they combine their communications, structures, policies, etc. into a unified, coherent whole?
- Representation. Do they convey meanings, in non-obvious and captivating ways, as opposed to giving simple directives and making straightforward declarations of fact?
- Imagination. Do they make surprising and unconventional departures from the ordinary that create a new sense of awareness or understanding?
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A Visual Breakdown Of The Benefits Of Working From Home
Are you on the fence about working from home? Is your boss? Here are some numbers to put in context how good it is for you and your job. Unless you don’t want to be a less stressed, more productive worker.
We’re big fans of the telecommuting movement. In past articles, we’ve discussed some of its many benefits--it makes you more productive, saves gasoline, makes you more creative (especially if you work at coffee shops), and means that companies need less office space for employees.
A new infographic, courtesy of CarInsurance.org, has laid out the advantages of working from home in visual form. The telecommuting trend, as the infographic explains, is speeding up.
10 Questions to Inspire Innovation
LeaderLab and CIO Insight
1. Accentuate the Positive
“What experiences make you smile?”
“What experiences make you smile?”
2. Intersecting Universes
“Have you ever looked at two seemingly unrelated experiences and realized they were connected?”
“Have you ever looked at two seemingly unrelated experiences and realized they were connected?”
4. Big Data Question
“Have you ever looked at the data you managed and asked why it matters?”
“Have you ever looked at the data you managed and asked why it matters?”
7. Beyond Limitations
“When have you ever pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone? How did you benefit?”
“When have you ever pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone? How did you benefit?”
9. Game Changer
“What’s the simplest thing you could do right now to transform this organization?”
“What’s the simplest thing you could do right now to transform this organization?”
Forget Work-Life Balance: It's Time for Work-Life Blend
Maybe we need to accept the fact that the sharp demarcation between work and home is a thing of the past, and that the new normal is a life that integrates home and work more seamlessly.
Focusing on work-life “integration” instead of work-life “balance” has at least a couple of implications:
