Tag Archives: business

7 steps to becoming a thought leader

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By John Edwards

You’re the sort of person who likes to solve problems. Co-workers and colleagues come to you for advice, ideas, insights and solutions. You also enjoy being a mentor, someone who doesn’t mind investing his or her time in order to help people achieve their goals.

Congratulations. Whether you realize it or not, you’re a thought leader, an authority whose IT expertise is frequently sought and, sometimes, rewarded. Now that you’re aware of your distinct status, perhaps it’s time you put your talents to work in a way that will promote your organization — and yourself.

Positioning oneself as a thought leader opens the door to multiple benefits, says Patrick Turner, CTO of Small Footprint, a custom software development company. “While it can certainly help you find that next step up the career ladder, it can also help you build a great team in the recruiting process,” explains Turner, who has positioned himself as his firm’s top thought leader. “People today look to companies where they can learn and grow professionally, and seeing thought leadership in a company can be a big draw for good people.” Continue reading →

Why business needs a ‘moral revolution’

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By Leigh Gallagher

Acumen founder Jacqueline Novogratz issued a powerful challenge to the roomful of CEOs at Fortune’s CEO Initiative conference on Tuesday: Business had the technology revolution; now it needs a “moral revolution.”

Describing her journey of leaving a successful career on Wall Street three decades ago to start a microfinance institution in Rwanda—which turned into more than $100 million in investment across 108 companies around the globe that has used entrepreneurism to bring services to more than 270 million people in the developing world—Novogratz shared lessons and advice for CEOs seeking to help solve the world’s most pressing issues.

Among Novogratz’s lessons: Empathy alone isn’t enough, she said, because empathy allows power dynamics to remain intact. “We don’t really have to change if we feel another person’s pain,” she said. Instead, solving the world’s problems calls for business leaders to channel their “moral imagination.”

Partnering, she said, is critical for scale. She cited Acumen’s eight-year partnership with global consulting firm Bain, which includes senior partners coming into Acumen’s offices and a total of 52,000 hours of pro bono consulting, but also “reverse apprenticeships.” These involve Bain embedding its young leaders in externships at Acumen initiatives in the field—in Ethiopia, say, or post-conflict Colombia—after which they come back with a different level of understanding of things like the supply chains in which their large-corporate clients are working in. “It makes them better leaders,” she says. Continue reading →

Serena Williams’ Secret for Never Cracking Under Pressure Can Work for You Too

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It’s used by sports stars and Zen masters, but it can help business leaders handle high-pressure situations too.

by Jessica Stillman

Watch Serena Williams play at Wimbledon today and you’ll no doubt be left in open-mouthed awe at the speed, strength, and precision of her play. But perhaps the most impressive thing about one of the best tennis players ever isn’t her incredible physical prowess, it’s her unshakeable concentration. The woman never cracks under pressure.

How does she shake off the incredible stress of a center-court match point? As David Robson recently reported for the BBC (hat tip Quartz), the answer is a powerful but little known technique called “the quiet eye.”
Control your eyes, control your stress.

If the term sounds a bit like something a meditation teacher would say, that’s no accident. The technique shares strong similarities with practices used by Zen masters, but the idea was brought to the world of sports by kinesiologist Joan Vickers. While studying exceptional sports performance for her PhD, Vickers hooked high-performing athletes up to a gizmo that tracked their eye movements. Continue reading →

How humility keeps your ego from hijacking your leadership and team success

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By Angela Kambouris

Ego is one of the biggest problems that humanity faces. Being egoless is not possible; however, you can keep yours in check to create business success.

When you are over-invested with your own self-worth, ego is running the show. Each person has beliefs and fears about their value, and when under stress, defensive or over-inflated behaviors play out. When on stage, leading an executive meeting or being a part of a mentorship relationship, your attention can be preoccupied by your view of yourself.

Each person has a set of criteria you unconsciously judge yourself against. When you measure up, you feel pride and like a leader. When you don’t, feelings of uncomfortableness, pressure or fear come out to play. Fight-flight behaviors are triggered, and reactionary behaviors will often result in misalignment of the true leader you are. Unhealthy dynamics take over your own leadership and team success.

Gargantuan egos still may create leaders who achieve phenomenal and impactful success. Kayne West holds a strong ego and has talent, strength and vision. Ego may be the driver to create success, but look at the costs. You see it being played out across the media — dysfunctional personal lives, infighting in organizations and careers blowing up at some point. Continue reading →

The face of leadership – and how your team might be reading into it

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 By Shannon Waller

Even a strong, skilled leader can send their team into a tailspin of self-doubt — and at worst, fear — just by being unaware of the emotion or lack of it writ large on their face. In the same way, a naturally serious or flat demeanor can wreak havoc on people’s sense of safety and confidence.

A team member can immediately go into panicked guessing mode. “What could be wrong? Did I say something I shouldn’t have? Is something bad happening to the company? What’s going on here? Yikes!”

The Worst-Case Scenario

Have you ever walked out of your office after a particularly troubling conversation with a client, still replaying the conversation in your head and not been aware of anyone around you? You pass one of your team members in the hallway and don’t even hear their cheery “Good morning!” You almost run into another colleague and barely utter an apology.

Because this is not how you usually treat people, and your team members don’t have any context to understand the serious and distracted look on your face, not to mention why you’re actually ignoring them, they immediately think that something is wrong and that it’s going to affect them. Continue reading →