Tag Archives: Communication

The Soul and Courage of a Leader

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By Miriam Linderman

 

It is a painful truth that too many people today speak about the toxic environment of their workplaces where they experience their spirits, imagination, self-expression, self-authority and vision for a better world continuously squelched by the system. Politics, domination, competitiveness, bullying and other similar situations drain inspiration. People long for supportive and caring workplaces where they can make creative, meaningful and fulfilling contributions that resonate with who they are and that maximize their gifts.

Hearing these stories hurt my heart, and may hurt yours too. Continue reading →

What is top talent and how is that identified?

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As a part of our talent acquisition engagements, we ask our clients how they define “top talent” and how they would assess those traits in the interview process.  Reflecting on the insightful comments we hear every day, we thought there would be great value in a new blog in which senior executives/thought leaders share their “Take on Talent.”

This is the third in a series of blogs/interviews with senior executives who are thought leaders in the areas of Talent Acquisition, Career Development and Leadership who will share their perspectives on this ever present question.

 

Andy W. Mattes was named president and chief executive officer and a member of the board of directors of Diebold, Incorporated in June 2013. He is responsible for driving the company’s global strategies and performance in the integrated self-service, security and services business.

With more than 25-years of experience in corporate management, executive oversight, mergers and acquisitions, growth strategies and equity management, Mattes has a strong record of driving growth and improving profitability in large, global businesses in the information technology and telecommunications industries – primarily with Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and Siemens AG. Mattes most recently served as senior vice president, global strategic partnerships at Violin Memory, a manufacturer of flash memory computer storage systems. Continue reading →

Thinking Like a Leader: Three Big Shifts

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Eric McNultyBy Eric J. McNulty

Leadership development often focuses on doing — the mastering and use of certain desirable skills and behaviors that concretely show someone to be leading. Competency-based models can provide lists of such skills, as well as attributes of their practice. But where leadership effectiveness really starts is with thinking — adopting a mental model that makes it possible to acquire those skills and demonstrate those behaviors in the first place. Mastering leadership thinking can be challenging, but it is absolutely essential. I may adopt the exact stance and handgrip of Jordan Spieth, but I’m unlikely to win the Masters — while there may be a (wide) gap in our athletic abilities, there is an even larger one in our mental capacity for the game of golf.

Leadership thinking can be learned but is difficult to teach. It is a matter of asking questions and presenting challenges that help someone discover the mental model that enables their “best leader” to emerge. It requires not just competency, but demonstrated proficiency. And proficiency only comes with practice, feedback, and analysis. Journaling and other reflective exercises are good for processing and absorbing both successes and failures. As Peter Drucker said, “Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” Continue reading →

Create a Conversation, Not a Presentation

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by John Coleman

When I worked as a consultant, I was perennially guilty of “the great unveil” in presentations—that tendency to want to save key findings for the last moment and then reveal them, expecting a satisfying moment of awe. My team and I would work tirelessly to drive to the right answer to an organization’s problem. We’d craft an intricate presentation, perfecting it right up until minutes or hours before a client meeting, and then we’d triumphantly enter the room with a thick stack of hard copy PowerPoint slides, often still warm from the printer.

But no matter how perfect our presentation looked on the surface, we regularly came across major issues when we were in the room. These one-sided expositions frequently led to anemic conversations. And this hurt our effectiveness as a team and as colleagues and advisers to our clients. Continue reading →

Leadership and Brilliance Are Not the Same

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Sramana MitraBy Sramana Mitra

When “How I Lead” was suggested as a topic, I had to pause to consider how my thinking has evolved on the subject. How did I lead earlier in my career? How do I lead today? What has changed? What has remained constant? How do I synthesize what has worked particularly well?

I have founded and run four companies since 1994. In each case, I had a mission for value creation that was big, bold, important, clear, and I always made sure the mission was communicated to everyone on my team and to the external world with utmost authenticity.

When I started DAIS in 1994, my mission was to jumpstart a technology industry in Calcutta, using my MIT Computer Science background to plug my birthplace into the global startup eco-system. My team of ~50 understood that mission well. I also got the media to root for us, inspiring them with that vision. This helped us tremendously in recruiting talent at a time when “startup” and “Calcutta” were incongruous concepts. Continue reading →