Tag Archives: Communication

What If Management Ideas Actually Mattered?

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by Gianpiero Petriglieri

In August 1993, Professor Donald Hambrick gave a memorable address to the annual gathering of the Academy of Management. As its president, his question to the thousands of members in the world’s largest association of management scholars could hardly be dismissed: What if the Academy actually mattered?

Hambrick’s “actually” referred to the men and women, outside the Academy, occupied with actual management in actual organizations. The picture of academic provincialism that he painted was a stark yet familiar one.

More than 20 years later, Hambrick’s address has been cited nearly 500 times in publications by fellow academics. An established genre has emerged from critiques that management research lacks relevance and management education lacks impact. And management “gurus” who work within and alongside academia — writing about supposedly relevant matters in accessible fashion — are called into question just as often. Continue reading →

The Two Questions You Need to Ask Your Data Analysts

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by Michael Li

Data scientists are in high demand.  McKinsey predicts a need for 1.5 million new data professionals in the U.S. alone. As these droves of analysts join organizations, it’s critical that they know how to talk with managers about their findings. But the burden for good communication doesn’t just fall on them. For their part, managers–the consumers of the analysis–need to ask the right questions to be sure they understand the key concepts behind data analysis.

At The Data Incubator, we work with hundreds of companies looking to train their workforce in modern data analytics or hire data scientists from our selective PhD fellowship. Our clients often ask us how they should engage with their newly trained or newly hired data professionals. Here are two critical questions we suggest they ask when trying to understand the results of any data analysis. Continue reading →

3 Things Managers Should Be Doing Every Day

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by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback

“When are we supposed to do all that?” That’s the question we constantly get from new managers, only weeks or months into their new positions, when we describe the three key activities they should be focusing on to be successful as leaders: building trust, building a team, and building a broader network. To their dismay, most of them have found they rarely end a day in their new positions having done what they planned to do. They spend most of their time solving unexpected problems and making sure their groups do their work on time, on budget, and up to standard. They feel desperately out of control because what’s urgent–the daily work–always seems to highjack what’s important–their ongoing work as managers and leaders. Continue reading →

Treat Promises to Yourself as Seriously as Promises to Others

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by Michael E. Kibler

Successful leaders keep their promises. They take their responsibilities to others seriously, and, when necessary, they put aside their own needs for the good of the organization. As Simon Sinek put it in his bestselling book, Leaders Eat Last: “Leaders are the ones willing to give up something of their own for us—their time, their energy, their money, maybe even the food off their plate…Unless someone is willing to make personal sacrifices for the good of others to earn their place in the hierarchy, they aren’t really ‘alpha material.’”

In my firm’s work with and analysis of more than 1,000 senior executives around the world, we’ve found that this description is only half right. Of course leaders sacrifice aspects of their personal lives at times; that’s the price of admission in today’s competitive work environment. But those who subjugate their own personal needs for healthful diet and exercise, sleep and recreation, personal connections, professional development, cultural enrichment, and community engagement over five, ten or 20 years eventually succumb to a phenomenon we refer to as brownout—the graduated loss of energy, focus, and passion, which ultimately diminishes their success. Continue reading →

Why Leadership Development Programs Fail: Revolutionizing On-The-Job

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By David Carder

In response to an argument McKinsey made for why leadership development programs fail, we made two cases for how they succeed: when they set and communicate realistic expectations, and when they are built on solid, empirical research foundations Going beyond the debate on why programs succeed or fail, I’d like to share some bold ways to implement effective leadership development programs.
We have worked with and observed organizations that are creating real, far-reaching changes in how leadership development participants apply what they have learned on the job. They are fundamentally reshaping the environment in which their learners work and, therefore, redefining the 70 in the 70:20:10 model . Continue reading →