All Articles Tagged "leadership"
Mean People Do Better in Business, Says Study
(Rolling Out) — Are you Miss Congeniality at work? If so, chances are, your mean co-workers earn more money than you. He may not be smarter, or more efficient than you, but just the mere fact that he’s a jerk makes him more valuable to the powers-that-be, according to a new study, “Do Nice Guys — and Gals — Really Finish Last?” by Dr. Livingston, Timothy A. Judge of the University of Notre Dame and Charlice Hurst of the University of Western Ontario, presented earlier this week at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management.
A Leadership Crisis is Afflicting the District
(Washington Examiner) — “There is a crisis of leadership in America,” Ohio’s Republican Gov. John Kasich said Sunday during an appearance on “Meet the Press,” adding that the problem isn’t just in the political arena. Anyone paying attention to District affairs during the past six months would second that sentiment. There has been a palpable absence of vision and a dearth of courage. Regrettably, there also has been an overabundance of unethical and other questionable behavior by many city leaders, particularly politicians.
What an NBA Coach Can Teach You About Leadership
(Inc.) – Avery Johnson overcame the odds as a player in the NBA. Despite going undrafted in the 1988 NBA Draft, Johnson went on to play 16 seasons in the league for six different franchises, becoming one of only two players less than six feet tall to play in more than 1,000 games. In 1999, he was the floor leader of the San Antonio Spurschampionship team (and was nicknamed the “Little General” for his leadership skills). In 2004, he joined the Dallas Mavericks as a player/coach, but before the season began he decided to retire as a player and to concentrate on coaching. In his first full season as head coach in 2005–2006, he was named NBA Coach of the Year as he guided the Mavericks to their first-ever NBA Finals appearance. He left the Mavericks in 2008, and after spending three years as an ESPN/ABC studio analyst, was hired as the new head coach of the New Jersey Nets before the 2010/2011 NBA season.
How to be Assertive at Work Without Being Called Out Your Name
Do you feel the walls caving in on you at work because you refuse to say no? Bosses and coworkers alike, are flying off the cuff simply because your receptive to their every command. They can read you as easily as a dog detects a human’s vulnerability because they think of you as a pushover. Now, how can you speak up without losing your job? Being assertive doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to be pompous or rude to others, but it shows you can voice your opinion, thus, gaining integrity in the long run.
Here’s how to be more direct to your peers:
10 Features of Management Success
(Black Enterprise) — When it comes to managing a workforce, it’s often the most basic elements of effective leadership that are overlooked. When productivity is stressed and managers struggle to do more with fewer resources in a lean economy, proper management strategies often fall by the wayside in favor of keeping the wheels turning. Scott J. Allen, assistant professor of management at John Carroll University says two-way communication is at the heart of effective management. In The Little Book of Leadership Development: 50 Ways to Bring out the Leader in Every Employee (co-written by Mitchell Kusy, a 2005 Fulbright Scholar and professor in the Ph.D. Program in Leadership & Change at Antioch University), Allen and Kusy highlight effective methods by which employers can get the most out of their workforce, while employees can get the most out of their job. Here are a few of the authors’ recommendations.
Clarify team expectations. “Without clarity, it’s difficult for an employee or team to have a clear understanding of what needs to be prioritized,” says Allen. “Each one of us has 1,000 things coming at us each day.” He says a leader needs to help the group focus its energy and focus its time where it needs to be applied and if priorities change, that also must be made clear.
Michelle Obama's Brother on Taking the Lead
(Inc.) — How to lead others to excel is a question that preoccupies Craig Robinson. He has been an investment banker and entrepreneur, and re-invented himself as a college basketball coach at the age of 38. With close personal proximity to Barack Obama, Robinson also assesses—from close up—what’s at the core of the president’s leadership style. From modest circumstances growing up in Chicago, Robinson vaulted to stardom as a basketball player at Princeton University. His business career was humming along—MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business; vice president at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter; and co-founder of a start-up investment firm, Loop Capital Markets—when he had a change of heart. In 2000, he became an assistant basketball coach atNorthwestern University. Six years later, he progressed to head coach at Brown University. He has been in his current post, at Oregon State University, since 2008. Robinson has earned accolades for lifting two teams out of the doldrums, and records he achieved at Brown in two years (30-28) and Oregon State in three (42-55).
Nigerian Billionaire Pledges $2 Million To Groom Future Leaders
By B. Hutson
Aliko Dangote, Nigeria’s first billionaire and owner of Africa’s largest cement company, the Dangote Group, recently pledged $2 million to create a fellowship program that will groom Africa’s future leaders.
Details about the fellowship are currently limited, but during a press conference at the World Economic Forum on Africa earlier this month, Dangote promised that 35 young Africans will receive a fellowship from the Dangote Foundation. The objective of the fellowship is to increase the participation of young Africans, particularly those in the non-business sector, in the Young Global Leaders (YGL) community program, which is administered by the World Economic Forum, reports Forbes. According to Dangote, the fellowship will initially run for five years. Beneficiaries of the fellowship will go through intense leadership training at highly ranked international institutions.
Dangote’s fellowship is great news as Africa continues to make strides in amassing more leaders in business and entrepreneurship, which will ultimately strengthen the continent’s economy.
Have What it Takes to Be CEO?
(Inc.) — Sooner or later, every growing company reaches a point at which the entrepreneur behind it should start wondering whether he or she is the right person to be CEO. The answer has a lot to do with the company’s stage of development. The person who’s right for the start-up phase may not be right when the business reaches the management stage. Veteran entrepreneur Norm Brodsky found out the hard way that he was a terrible manager.
Boot Camp Boss That Bosses Your Boss
(Inc.) — Imagine this for leadership training: It’s midnight, and you’re dropped into the San Diego Bay. The water temperature is a brisk 57 degrees, and you’re surrounded by strangers. Ex-military-types begin screaming at you to swim—but you have no idea where you’re going. When you finally reach the beach, two miles later, you collapse in exhaustion. Welcome to Leadership Under Fire—you’ve just begun your 72-hour lesson in becoming a better boss. ”The purpose is to tell them that they can walk into any situation and come out ahead,” says Rob Roy, the founder of the Leadership Under Fire series and a former Navy SEAL officer. “They can’t walk into a boardroom and think they can’t make it. They’ll refer back to this time, and say ‘Yeah, this is difficult, but I can make it through.”
Since 2005 Rob Roy has been teaching—and enforcing—leadership through his own unique vision. His company, SOT-G, which puts on the Leadership Under Fire series in partnership with the Young Presidents Organization (YPO), has three full-time staff members, but will contract with 35-40 ex-Navy officers during a session. With over 25 years experience in the Navy and time served as a Navy SEAL, Roy has come to understand leadership in a way most leaders in corporate America don’t get to experience. For Roy, leadership has literally made the difference between life and death. “We offer something that you are not going to get from reading a book,” says Roy. “Motivation is not leadership—real leaders inspire, guide and give hope.”
More Board Members Getting Hired as CEOs: An Unwise Corporate Trend
(Daily Finance) — So why has the number of directors being tapped for CEO posts more than tripled in the past year? “The main reason is a lack of proper succession planning by companies,” says Anita Skipper, corporate governance director of Aviva Investors. “The need for prompt management changes during the financial crisis may also have compounded the trend. Boards are more risk-averse. If no one from management can quickly step into the CEO’s position, the ‘safe’ alternative is to choose someone well known to the board, who understands the strategy and business, and may have previous experience as a CEO.”
