Have you ever found yourself in the precarious position when you are faced with dilemmas or situations that cause your emotions to run rampant? As a leader we may opt at times to make a reactive judgment or mercurial decision based on our instinct or what we perceive to be the correct response. What truths are we grounded in, and do we have the mental capacity (emotional intelligence) to make decisions which create win/win outcomes? What differentiates this style of…
A 20081 study cited flawed critical thinking as a significant contributor to the 2003 loss of NASA’s Columbia space shuttle, killing all seven crew members. More recent examples of flawed and costly critical thinking include the Volkswagen emissions scandal, the 2007 mortgage banking collapse, and failed military interventions around the globe. Common contributors included the inability to examine assumptions, limited information or perspectives, reacting and settling for apparent solutions too quickly, inability to project consequences, and the tendency to repeat past…
Most are familiar with common dictionary definitions for integrity as “moral uprightness” or “adherence to a moral code.” Dictionaries define integrity as “the quality of being complete; unbroken condition; wholeness; entirety.” But what does that mean in the context of leading change? Harvard’s Howard Gardner and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (author of Flow) provide some clues. Their book defined “good work” as effective, engaging, and ethical; looking at the whole picture, work is not whole or complete unless it meets those three…
The concept of organizational leadership is not entirely novel in this era. For centuries, anthropologists have cued into the self-organizing traits of groups, how leaders emerge, and the characteristics that define them. What is organizational leadership? Author Jim Stroup says in his Managing Leadership, "Organizational leadership is inherent in the very nature of the organization. It arises from the peculiar relationships among people joined together collaboratively.” In looking forward to future trends for running a successful business, competent and flexible organizational…
During two decades of HR experience, I have read numerous articles on the differences between leadership and management and how particular job titles needed to have more or less of each. Instead of providing another article on the similarities and differences between management and leadership, this article will take a different perspective. Instead of treating them as separate, organizations should approach them as complementary and symbiotic concepts. Each might focus on different areas and provide different skill sets, but management…