sean f burns
Leadership
Why is Influencing Such Hard Work?
Two people are on opposite sides of a ravine. Person 1 asks person 2: “Say, how do I get to the other side?” Person 2 replies: “You’re already there!” We’re all so busy processing so much information and interruptions these days. It is easy to forget not only that organizations are all about people, but … Continue reading
Nature of Successful Leadership
Elizabeth Filippouli recently published an outstanding article on the nature of success for leaders. In her post, she points out that success is not only personal, it’s an aggregation of advantages and circumstance. Just as Malcolm Gladwell argues in Outliers, we as a society have more control about who succeeds than we think. It’s important … Continue reading
Developing Better Change Leaders
Putting leadership development at the heart of a major operations-improvement effort paid big dividends for a global industrial company. This is an excerpt from an article by Aaron De Smet, Johanne Lavoie, and Elizabeth Schwartz Hioe. Read the whole article here: https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Organization/Change_Management/Developing_better_change_leaders_2959 Few companies can avoid big, periodic changes in the guts of their business. … Continue reading
Carnegie Leadership Styles
There are a number of interesting books and articles out there on how leadership definitions vary from continent to continent, and how they often derive from the military history of that location. When we work with people whose leadership style is different from our own, communication and cooperation can be challenging. Within the context of … Continue reading
Public sector merger
I just finished a four-month engagement leading the consolidation of services (IT, IM, HR and Finance) for three agencies of the New Zealand government. A newspaper article on the transformation programme came out today decrying it as simply more public servant headcount reductions. The article completely missed the significance and strategic importance of this programme … Continue reading
Havard Video: Leading Collaboration
John Abele of Boston Scientific has recently written an article for the Harvard Business Review on various forms of collaboration and is interviewed here. John gives a few examples of collaborative leadership, even in cases when leaders don’t get along, for the leaders to get the best outcomes from each other and the situation. Key … Continue reading
A new standard for service, IC9700
In under just a couple years, the IC9700 business standard has rocketed into favor with Fortune 500s. Fans include Ford, GE and Pfizer. It has become a less expensive and more accurate alternative to the again ISO9001:2001 standard. Analysts now praise the IC9700 standard for being simple yet incredibly effective. The core principles are as … Continue reading
What successful transformations share
A recent McKinsey global survey looks at the common themes in successful transformations. Transformations inherently mean change, and best practice (based on my experience) means “the people” should be a center focus for any change. Transformation as a concept can be used for large-scale change, dramatically improving performance, cutting costs, and recovering from a crisis. … Continue reading
The Biggest Mistake a Leader Can Make
Management thought leaders share their ideas on how leadership goes wrong. Featuring: Bill George, Evan Wittenberg, Dr. Ellen Langer, Andrew Pettigrew, Gianpiero Petriglieri, Carl Sloane, Jonathan Doochin, Scott Snook, and Daisy Wademan Dowling.
Innovative Leadership Interview: Meg Wheatley
A recent Booz & Company Strategy+Business interview with Meg Wheatley on innovative leadership offers an interesting perspective that too many organizations are reverting to fear-driven management. Her views on communities and innovative management practices has made her a leading figure on organizational learning and change. Wheatley has noticed it is human nature that is preventing … Continue reading
