best practices in leading Archives

Smile, Your Mirror Neurons are Firing Everyone Up & A Homework Assignment

Intuitively, it makes sense that leaders that are more engaged and engaging tend to elicit better responses and better results from their teams. Perhaps nice people can finish first. Now, the father of the concept of Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman (What Makes A Leader), along with Richard Boyatiz are pushing the envelope by integrating new research in social neuroscience with their studies of effective leaders. Their recent Harvard Business Review article, Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership, is fascinating reading for anyone intrigued by the role that our biological makeup plays in our leadership abilities.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:13-05:00March 6th, 2009|Leadership|0 Comments

The Recurring Labors of a Leader or, “It’s Deja Vu All Over Again”

It seems that Yogi Berra was right (that’s the former Yankee player and manager, not the Jellystone Park character on the lookout for a quick meal). One of the reasons that so much business writing and advice sounds familiar is that we conveniently keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again, allowing new generations of pundits to dispense similar advice in new packaging. In a short piece entitled Learning from Heroes found in the March, 2009 Harvard Business Review, Jack Covert and Todd Satterson suggest that this recurring pattern in business actually mirrors the hero’s journey found in mythology.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:13-05:00March 4th, 2009|Leadership, Leading Change|1 Comment

Leadership Lessons from the Road

One of the great things about leading workshops with talented professionals is how much I learn about the very real challenges that people face in trying to get work done inside their organizations. After spending a day together working with a group technical professionals at The Data Warehouse Institute's World Conference, I gained some insights into the challenges and barriers that are slowing down progress and inhibiting performance improvements inside organizations.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:13-05:00February 27th, 2009|Career, Decision-Making, Leadership, Project Management|2 Comments

The Right Stuff: Sprinting Towards the Future

It’s easy to focus on the bad news. Everyone’s talking about it. We’re bombarded with news flashes and human disaster stories as the layoffs mount and the foreclosures climb. And make no doubt about it, these are tough times, but let’s start giving some coverage to the firms, leaders and entrepreneurs that have turned off the news channels and are too busy building or rebuilding to worry about the dire forecasts. For a good dose of “can do” spirit, get out of your office and go talk with some smart people working to strengthen, build or start businesses. I’m doing just that, and here's why I continue to be optimistic:

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:13-05:00February 20th, 2009|Leadership, Leading Change|1 Comment

Leadership Caffeine™ for the Week of February 16, 2009

Note to RSS and e-mail subscribers: thanks to readers for pointing out that my weekly Leadership Caffeine posts were not publishing to e-mail subscribers. It appears that the name must change otherwise the system thinks that it is redundant. I will include the date in the headline from this point. I apologize for any inconvenience in republishing this post. -Art The focus this week is on strengthening team performance by improving your own leadership practices. You as leader directly control the quality of your team’s working environment. The health of this environment is a critical indicator of your leadership effectiveness. Here are three ideas to help jump-start your program to improve your team's working environment.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:13-05:00February 15th, 2009|Leadership Caffeine|1 Comment

The Leader’s Mid-Week Survival Guide

Hey, it’s Wednesday. How are you doing on your leadership priorities this week? If you are starting to feel the week slip away from you, here’s a blunt reminder and a few tips to focus on your true priorities. The week’s not over yet…and victory is still within your reach. It’s time to fight off the fires and push away from the urgent-unimportant.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:14-05:00February 4th, 2009|Decision-Making, Leadership|0 Comments

Five Tips for Leading Change When You’re Not In Charge

As I continue on my career respite from managing a business that's not mine, I’m increasingly conscious of the significant gap between the needs and ideas of employees and the attention and interest of senior managers. There are so many remarkable ideas and thoughts on improving performance that never see the light of day that it is staggering. I offer five suggestions for driving change when you're not in charge. I'm hoping that readers will add a few more of their own.

By Art Petty|2016-10-22T17:12:14-05:00January 30th, 2009|Career, Leadership, Leading Change, Project Management|2 Comments

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