From my experience working with leaders of all kinds, I have noticed many different styles and approaches can be effective depending on the context, situation, organization or personalities involved. But, there seem to be four essential characteristics that always need to be present. Even those who do not have an official title or leadership position can lead “from the seat” if demonstrating these qualities.
How fitting that the first letters of each quality form the acronym TEAM since the ability to create a sense of team is the gift of the most outstanding leaders.
Independence Day got me thinking about the meaning of the word independence, which led me to wonder if I could come up with a strong, positive leadership trait for each letter of the alphabet. Here is my unscientific, yet empirical, list of qualities consistently demonstrated by leaders I admire
Are you one of those people who gets excited by new ways of doing things? Or, do you get frightened and prefer to stick with the tried and true? Does your organization management constantly try to look around corners and make pre-emptive changes in anticipation of shifts in market needs or customer behavior? Or, does [...]
For the past decade, I have had regular conversations with a woman who leads an academic department in a US university.
A client of mine was told that, in order to be promoted, she needs to demonstrate greater “Executive Presence”, which is the new buzz-word phrase in Leadership Development circles. But, she is puzzled about what exactly that means. It seems to be an elusive quality, and different people have different interpretations and opinions of what it actually is. This is my attempt to come up with a common framework for recognizing and developing “Executive Presence”.
Last week, I facilitated a meeting between senior leaders of industry and a professional association to explore the topic of collaboration. For the session, I defined successful collaboration as knowing how to respect personal boundaries and how to break down conceptual and organizational ones. I discovered collaboration is a fluid concept taking many forms:
Thirty thousand neuroscientists descended on Chicago this weekend, spreading across the city like a neural network, to connect, spark ideas and exchange information. One of them mentioned to me how morale in her department at a prestigious university hit an all-time low when the new head took over. What is his offense? His big problem is being [...]
by: Nichole E
August 20, 2009
If you think your resume should be all about your experience and your accomplishments, then you’re not going to like what I have to tell you. As a job seeker looking for placement at the Executive level in the not-for-profit sector, it’s important to prove your worth in terms of accomplishments, but it’s even more [...]
