LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP FROM BOB WOODWARD I had the unique opportunity to hear Bob Woodward, who along with Carl Bernstein broke the Watergate Scandal, speak in a private session to the Blackburn Institute at the University of Alabama. Bob was asked the question, “What advice would you give to students about leadership?” Instead of giving points on leadership, or even discussing one of the seven Presidents he has interviewed, he told the story of Katharine Graham, owner of the Washington Post. By describing the key points of one of their discussions about the Watergate story he emphasized these key points: She was “mind
4 TIPS FOR C LEVEL EXECUTIVES TO EMPOWER THE MIDDLE MANAGER I often think that being a “middle manager” may be the worst place to be in the organizational hierarchy. I often have middle managers in my leadership classes who complain that they feel stuck in the role of go-betweener. They feel as though the purpose they serve is to act as a buffer between employees and upper management without the authority to make key decisions that they feel are best for their people and the company. I recently saw this happening to a middle manager that told me, “I
I attended a seminar last week discussing ways to improve productivity and communication in the workplace. One thing that stood out to me in the presentation was the emphasis the presenter placed on eliminating stressors so that people could be innovative and creative. He placed a value on innovation and creativity as the only differentiating factors in creating a sustainable advantage. What if standard or traditional work arrangements are creating workplace stressors and reducing innovation and creativity? This leads me to consider a tie to a book I mentioned last week, The Elephant and the Flea and its emphasis on
I will be starting a weekly blog post on Thursdays (in addition to our leadership focused blog post on Mondays) that focuses on Career Development. Although this will be useful information for people of all ages, it should particularly be helpful for students. Hope you enjoy this new series! Here’s what we’ll cover: Part 1: Your Horizon A. Know Yourself: Explore your talents, passions and values to make wise career decisions. -Talents as employers see them- KSAOs (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other Characteristics) -Passions through your Holland Code -Values- know your ideal workstyle and lifestyle B. Understand the Market -Are you useful?
Last week, I talked about how boredom at work is one of the worst employment states and offered suggestions for how employees can improve bored working conditions. I want to focus now on leaders who have bored workers. If you have people who are bored on the job, I believe there are two primary reasons and two primary tips for curing the boredom. 1. They are bored because you don’t need them, or you don’t need them full-time. Long gone are the days where every single position on the face of the planet needed to be a 40 hour a