Thursday, May 31, 2007

Poetry and Business

Who would have thought that these two things might actually appear in the same sentence. I find the item that I've linked most intriguing.

This excerpt comes from a newsletter that I receive from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Leadership and Change (Podcast with Transcript)

Dana Gioia on the Close Connection between Business and Poetry Dana Gioia(pronounced Joy-a) claims to be the only person in history who went to business school to be a poet. Having earned a degree from Stanford's Graduate school of business, he worked 15 years in corporate life, eventually becoming vice president of General Foods. In 1991, Gioia wrote an influential collection of essays titled, "Can Poetry Matter?" in which he explored, among other themes, the nexus between business and poetry. Since 2002, he has been chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts where he has overseen programs aimed at making Shakespeare and poetry recitation more popular in the U.S. Gioia, who is a speaker at the Wharton Leadership Conference in Philadelphia on June 7, talked about these ideas with management professor Michael Useem and Knowledge@Wharton.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/1745.cfm

You can subscribe to the Knowledge @ Wharton newsletter here: Sign Up

Be well. /jeff

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Visual Thinking Tools

Anyone who has spent time with me in training or in a class, knows what a proponent I am of using visual tools to help better understand situations. We live in a time when it's too easy to get lost in a deluge of information.... the beauty of visual tools, is they allow us to more clearly see through all the data.

For several years now, I've been a user of a mind mapping program called Mind Jet. I've even created a version of my resume (above) with it. It does generate interesting looks and conversation. The folks who produce this software are getting ready to release a new, even more robust, version.

If you want to learn more about this tool, you might want to sign up for a free webinar that's being offered on June 5. Here are the details: Idea Mapping: Jamie Nast Hosts Free Mindjet Webinar - June 5, 2007. I think this could be a pretty good session.
Be well.

Friday, May 18, 2007

Ciao Venizia and Asolo

The neuroleadership summit certainly has pushed my brain cells.... I'm still processing on it, so don't have much to share at this point...

I will say this... there is some compelling neuroscience research that supports some specific ways in which leadership can be taught/developed. This is what I'll be following up on for my own work, (and sharing here).

I must say, the location was quite an amazing place... Asolo is about an hour drive from Venice. The history of the place is deep.... many of the giants from Italian/World history spent time in this lovely corner of the world. Here's a link to some info on Asolo.

Ciao from Italia.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

NeuroLeadership

What is this? I'm not entirely sure, but I will be finding out very soon. As I type this, I'm taking a break from packing for a flight to Venice (Veniza) Italy. I will be attending the "NeuroLeadership Summit" in Asolo.

What I know at this point is that we're going to hear a lot of cutting edge stuff related to brain development, the wiring, how its formed and how it can be reshaped. And we'll be coupling that with what we know about good leadership development work.

It's going to be interesting to see where this leads.... I'm excited about it as I think it's going to be a most mind stretching experience. Here are a couple of resources I'm reviewing in preparation:

The Neuroscience of Leadership
Webinar on Neuroscience of Leadership

Be well. /jeff

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Toxic and Bad Leaders

On Monday, I posted an item about "neurotic" leaders.... to continue the theme of leadership styles that most of us would not prefer to work with here are some links to info on the concepts of Toxic Leadership, and Bad Leaders.

In order to better understand the more positive aspects of leadership and the various theories of leadership, it's probably quite useful to take a look at the shadow or darker sides of the concept as well. I'll refrain from commenting on any of our current "leaders", but I'm sure if you look through these resources you'll realize just how often we find ourselves surrounded by these less than ideal leaders.

Jean Lipman-Blumen has written: "The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive Bosses and Corrupt Politicians - and How We Can Survive Them", (New York: Oxford
University Press), 2005.

An article by Jean on this concept can be found at: Ivey Business Journal
Here's a most provacative exceprt from the article:

The real tragedy of the human condition is not that we all must die, but, rather, that we choose to live by grand illusions, rather than to face our fears. Hence, we fall into the clutches of toxic leaders who promise us the moon, knowing full well they cannot deliver. In the worst of all cases, toxic leaders fall under the spell of their own grand illusions and believe that they can.

The second resource on the darker side of leadership comes from Barbara Kellerman and is called: "BAD LEADERSHIP: What It Is, How It Happens, Why It Matters" (Harvard Business School Press, September 2004).

A short synopsis of the book says: "Bad Leadership argues that it's time to embrace a more honest, holistic view of leadership that acknowledges the dark side of human nature and its impact on leaders and followers alike. In a departure from conventional thinking, Barbara Kellerman contends that bad leadership is not an aberration, but a ubiquitous and insidious part of everyday life that must be carefully examined and better understood." "Kellerman identifies two fundamental categories of bad leadership - ineffective and unethical - and highlights the seven types of bad leadership that are the most prevalent: incompetent, rigid, intemperate, callous, corrupt, insular, and evil."

Here are some resources that Harvard has availabe on Bad Leadership. It includes links to additional items and a video of Kellerman.

That's all for now... especially about the "less than desireable" sides of leadership. Coming next.... NeuroLeadership. Stay tuned....

Be well.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Neurotic Leadership

Okay... over the next couple of weeks you'll be seeing several postings from me on the topic of NeuroLeadership. (more on that in the coming days).

Today, I'd like to point you to some interesting work coming out of Pepperdine that takes a look at neurotic styles of leadership/managment. Or to use language from Star Wars.... "the dark side" of management.

Here's an excerpt from the article, plus the link to the entire piece....

Effective executives strive to manage their firms using sound management practices. They lead by developing strategy and implementing it. They adopt strategic management practices that rely on logic, rational decision making and inductive sense making. Productive work places are planned, orderly, caring, team-based, and learning-and-development-oriented. Collins and Porras[1] and Collins[2] advocate managerial styles that build long lasting endurance through use of rational and thoughtful processes. However, there are managers who may mean well, but whose styles are anxious and idiosyncratic. Their neurotic styles tend to undermine and obliterate the effectiveness of their organizations and people and lead to reckless results.

Link to article: "Seven Neurotic Styles of Management" Have you ever worked for any of these styles??? I hope not, but I'm guessing most of us have at one point or another.

Be well.... /jeff