Here are choice articles on hot leadership topics culled from the business schools, the business press and major consulting firms, to start off your work week. I’m pointing you to articles about leadership, strategy, industries, innovation, women and work, and work and learning now and in the future. Highlights include the three measures of your leadership success, disruptive trends that will transform the auto industry, how to institutionalize innovation, Sheryl Sandberg’s latest thoughts on women, work and equality, and how we’ll work In 2016.
Be sure to look for dots that you can connect.
Note: Some links require you to register or are to publications that have some form of limited paywall.
Thinking about Leadership and Strategy
From Dale Buss: 10 Trends to Watch That Could Change How You Do Business
“From looking at how you build your products and services to how you communicate with customers and potential employees, the follow 10 trends—from Ford in-house futurist Sheryl Connelly’s latest annual report—will affect how you engage both with your customers and your employees.”
From Eric J. McNulty: The Three Measures of Your Leadership Success
“So how can you gain a reasonably accurate understanding of your success as a leader? Try integrating three distinctive views.”
From Roger L. Martin: Strategy and Execution Are the Same Thing
“In a recent article, Paul Leinwand, Cesare Mainardi, and Art Kleiner presented some survey findings underscoring the well-established fact that few leaders (only 8%, according to their study) are good at both creating good strategies and putting them into practice. But they seemed to almost completely ignore a really interesting finding from their research, which is that leaders who are good at strategy are nearly always also good at execution — to the extent that making a distinction between the two is futile.”
Industries and Analysis
From by Nicolas Boutin, Sean Collins, Raj Ganguly, Jason Guggenheim, Pranay Jhunjhunwala, and Tom McCaleb: Travel Innovated: Who Will Own the Customer?
“The question for travel companies is not whether this vision is impractical or too far in the future to think about. It’s neither. As digital technologies, big data, and innovation provide more and more seamless experiences for consumers like Olivia, the real questions that arise—and that we examine here—are these: How can travel suppliers protect their place in the value chain? And how can they leverage their strengths to take part in this innovation so that they can maintain and strengthen their position in the consumer’s travel experience?”
From Paul Gao, Hans-Werner Kaas, Detlev Mohr, and Dominik Wee: Disruptive trends that will transform the auto industry
“Technology-driven trends will revolutionize how industry players respond to changing consumer behavior, develop partnerships, and drive transformational change.”
From the Economist: Clusterluck
“Boston’s biotech hub is surviving the challenge from Silicon Valley”
Innovation and Technology
From Morten Bennedsen: How to Institutionalise Innovation
“The words ‘family firms’ and ‘innovation’ seem to be at odds. Family firms smack of tight control, risk aversion, lengthy CEO tenure, existing in traditional industries and products. Some research has gone as far as saying that family ownership harms innovation for these very reasons. Others say it benefits innovation. But both arguments miss a fundamental variable that determines the innovative edge of a family firm: its ‘family assets.'”
From Steve Fyffe and Karen Lee: How Design Thinking Improves the Creative Process
“We recently talked to Stefanos Zenios, a professor of operations, information, and technology at Stanford GSB, on how to get customer feedback, create effective prototypes, and facilitate more productive brainstorming sessions through design thinking. The interview that follows has been condensed and edited for clarity.”
From Greg Satell: Reinventing the Future: How IBM Innovates
“IBM’s commitment to research goes back a long way, dating to when its legendary CEO, Thomas Watson established the Research division in the depths of the Great Depression. And, while other great labs, such as Xerox PARC and Bell Labs have long since fallen into obscurity, IBM has redoubled its efforts.”
Women and the Workplace
From Dipti Gore: Interview With K V Sudha, Executive Director of Development Engineering, Dell India
“K V Sudha is the Executive Director of Development Engineering at Dell India. In this interview with Ms K V Sudha, we spoke to her about her role and the opportunities and challenges that come with it, why more youngsters should be aspiring to be in technology and life as a woman in technology.Below is the interview.”
From Jena McGregor: Sheryl Sandberg’s latest thoughts on women, work and equality
“Gender issues took center stage Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as a panel of all-star voices on the topic chatted about the benefits of gender diversity in the workplace, how to get more women into leadership roles and the systematic biases that women face.”
From Margie Warrell: Are Women Doomed To Lack Self-Esteem? Why The Gender Confidence Gap Persists
“Four years ago I moved from the U.S. to Australia and began from ground zero building my business. Having spent the previous decade coaching female executives, I was curious to see how the cultural differences between countries played out for women in the workplace.”
Work and Learning Now and in the Future
From Industry Week: 3M’s Approach to the Future Workplace
“Marlene McGrath, senior vice president of human resources at manufacturer 3M, talks about ways her company is adapting to the changing trends in work.”
From Danielle Beurteaux: How We’ll Work In 2016
“There’s good news for employees in 2016, along with a continuing discussion of worker classification, benefits, and how to achieve that ever-difficult work-life balance.”
From Cindy Krischer Goodman: Work Life Balance Trends that will make your life easier in 2016
“So, when I welcomed 2016, I resolved to become more productive during the workday and spend more quality evening time with my family. Many of you started the new year with similar intentions to reclaim boundaries and improve your work/life balance. Fortunately, a number of work/life trends are taking hold to help us with our resolutions.”
More Leadership Posts from Wally Bock
Praise Fundamentals
Praise is the most powerful tool you have for getting more of what you want. Here are some guidelines for doing praise well.
50 of “the best book I read in 2015” recommendations
I love getting book recommendations from friends and colleagues. So I asked a bunch of people for the best book they read in 2015. Becky Robinson helped me reach out to the LeadChange Group for more recommendations. The result is more than fifty recommendations for books to read.
By and About Leaders: 1/19/16
Pointers to pieces by and about Gerry Mecca, Denise Johnson, Mary Delaney, Ragy Thomas, and Mark Fields.
From the Independent Business Blogs: 1/20/16
Pointers to posts by Jesse Lyn Stoner, Chris Edmonds, Julie Winkle Giulioni, Mary Jo Asmus, and Art Petty.
Stories and Strategies from Real Life: 1/22/16
Pointers to stories about Netflix, In Blue Handmade, Lyft. Pop! Promos, and Waffle House
Writing well gives you the edge in business and in life. If you want to get a book done, improve your blog posts, or make your web copy more productive, please check out my blog about business writing. My coaching calendar for authors and blog writers currently has time open. Please contact me if you’re interested.
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