Archive for the ‘Creating Opportunities’ Category
Monday, July 4th, 2011
–By Schon Beechler
On Friday and Saturday I posted two blogs regarding my recent failed teaching experience in India last week. I shared this story for two primary reasons. First, I shared my story to solicit input from others that I can use to help me understand what went wrong this time so that I can use it in the future. I plan to return to India to teach and making the experience a valuable one for the participants is the most important objective I have.
But I also shared my story for another reason – I think that it’s important to talk about our failures to help others benefit from our mistakes. (more…)
Tags: courage, ego, executive education, positive leadership, steve jobs, teaching
Posted in Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, General, Leadership Education and Development, Learning, Lift / Fundamental State of Leadership | 1 Comment »
Monday, May 9th, 2011
By Ryan W. Quinn
Last week, Schon wrote an entry on this blog asking whether the killing of Osama Bin Laden was an act of positive leadership or not. Some of our readers left a number of provocative comments in response to this entry, which we appreciate. This week, I would like to follow up on Schon’s post with a different question: Now what? (more…)
Tags: Bin Laden, future, Osama, peace, positive leadership, transformational leadership
Posted in Creating Opportunities, General, Leading Change | 4 Comments »
Friday, May 6th, 2011
– By Schon Beechler
We are drawn to the successful men and women in our field. We watch them. We ask them and others the secrets of their success. We analyze and emulate them in the hopes that we, too, can be as good (or better) than they are. What we don’t usually get to see, however, are the failures that helped fuel the successful role models we so admire. (more…)
Tags: courage, courageous leadership, executive education, executive programs, failure, positive leadership, self-confidence
Posted in Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, General, High Performance, Learning | 4 Comments »
Friday, March 11th, 2011
– By Schon Beechler
The theme of my blogs this week is values and leadership. Today, I’d like to share a simple tool to help you discover (or re-discover) your own values in the context of work. It’s an approach developed by my colleague, Manny Elkind, which he’s used with thousands of executives around the world (see one executive’s leadership story in Wednesday‘s blog). We hope you find it useful!
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Tags: leadership, leadership tool, values
Posted in Agility / Adaptation, Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, Crisis, General | No Comments »
Monday, March 7th, 2011
-By Schon Beechler
Almost every day you can read about a crisis of leadership. A quick read of today’s March 7th, 2011 New York Times reveals (1) the resignation of the Japanese Foreign Minister, Seiji Maehara, for illegal campaign donations; (2) a full-length article on Charlie Sheen (need I say more?); and (3) the trial of Raj Rajaratnam, one of “Wall Street’s savviest investors until accused in the biggest insider trading scandal in a generation.
Whether it is politics, Hollywood, business or education in the US, Japan, Germany, China, or South Africa, research and pundits agree that we desperately need leaders. (more…)
Posted in Creating Opportunities, General, Learning, Lift / Fundamental State of Leadership | 5 Comments »
Monday, February 28th, 2011
- By Schon Beechler
I was recently traveling to India for business and boarded my flight from JFK, not looking forward to the 16 hour journey. I arrived at my seat and saw that my seat-mate, a man in his 50s or so, was already there. I smiled and said hello as I put my carry-on baggage away and settled in. But the man never looked up or acknowledged me in any way. I immediately thought,”What an ass! Why do I have to sit next to an unpleasant guy all the way to India?”
(more…)
Tags: decision making, judger, judgment, learner, positive, positive leadership, Positive organizational scholarship
Posted in Communication, Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, Diversity / Leveraging Difference, General, High Performance, Learning, Positive Relationships and Networks | 7 Comments »
Friday, February 11th, 2011
In the last five blog entries I have illustrated the leadership potential in changing how we introduce ourselves. We can choose to greet people as we normally do, or we can choose to do it with an increase in heart-felt positivity. I have shared examples of how this unusual choice can result in surprising outcomes. The question is why?
Imagine a competition in which a group of business executives must make proposals to a set of judges. Alex Pentland, a professor at MIT, gathered such a group. One week before their competition he collected data on each executive. Then without, any information on what they actually presented, he predicted who would win. His predictions were 87% accurate. How is this possible?
[Read more]
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Posted in Collaboration / Teamwork / Breaking Down Silos, Communication, Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, Energizing the Workplace, General, High Performance, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership Education and Development, Leading Change, Learning, Lift / Fundamental State of Leadership, Positive Relationships and Networks, Social Responsibility and Virtue, Teamwork | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
In the last few blog entries I have been writing about how we greet others, and what happens if we choose to self-elevate. I committed to do this. What happened was surprising.
I had to go to a routine meeting. I drove to the parking structure at the university and as I got out, I saw a man fixing a light. I made it a point to walk close to him then greet him with great warmth and to express appreciation for the work he was doing. He responded well and I concluded that it was a nice but very small event. I was wrong.
[Read more]
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Posted in Agility / Adaptation, Collaboration / Teamwork / Breaking Down Silos, Communication, Conflict, Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, Energizing the Workplace, General, High Performance, Innovation and Creativity, Leadership Education and Development, Leading Change, Learning, Lift / Fundamental State of Leadership, Positive Relationships and Networks, Teamwork | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 7th, 2011
I have been writing about how we introduce ourselves. In the last blog entry I shared a story about a man at the gym who changes people by how he says hello. I also told a similar story about meeting Jack Welch. These two experiences remind me of a third one.
I have been interviewing excellent elementary school teachers, teachers in the top one percent. These people violate all our normal assumptions about how to teach. They get impossibly positive outcomes. In my interviews, one of these teachers said, “Look at the normal teachers. They are full of fear. You can feel it when they walk in a room. You can feel it in their voice. You can see it when they greet a child. When a third grader walks into my room, I greet them with strength, and I envelop that child into my life.”
[Read more] (more…)
Posted in Agility / Adaptation, Communication, Courage / Empowerment / Initiative, Creating Opportunities, Energizing the Workplace, High Performance, Leadership Education and Development, Lift / Fundamental State of Leadership, Positive Relationships and Networks | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
By Robert E. Quinn
During the last few years we witnessed something that was once considered impossible. It was the bankruptcy of General Motors. The executives at GM were well educated, experienced, highly paid people with authority and power in the hierarchy. Many people believe that such resources are the keys of corporate success. So why didn’t General Motors make the changes that were necessary to success?
In considering this question, I would like to present one of the most dramatic case studies I know. I would like to use the case study to make a point not only about the management of General Motors but about the management of my life and yours. (more…)
Posted in Agility / Adaptation, Creating Opportunities | 1 Comment »
