Ladies and Gentlemen, today we are going to talk about politics. We’ve just finished a grueling New York City Democratic mayoral primary season. The apparent winner is Bill de Blasio, an Italian who managed to get enough votes from the black community to easily defeat the leading black candidate, at least for now (avoiding a…
One of the toughest things for a leader to do is encourage others to speak openly about their ideas, freely challenging the leader’s point of view. After all, we all come to the party with a certain pride of authorship, and while we say we check our egos at the door, this is rarely completely…
Do you love a boss who treat you kindly? Is this enough? This is a critical issue. We spend considerable time focusing on the importance of managers who can engage their people, stressing things like prioritization and availability – because the absence of these traits is so disengaging. But there is another aspect: the seemingly…
Great leaders are great listeners. They encourage others to express their opinions and seriously consider what they hear, even if it challenges pre-existing beliefs http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/09/03/6-ways-leaders-can-get-better-results-by-not-talking/. Yet, when we think of great leaders, listening is not the attribute that first comes to mind. Our perceptions of leadership are heavily influenced by Hollywood. We expect leaders to…
When managers get frustrated, they sometimes describe their work as herding cats. And the more managers are being asked to manage Millennials the more cats it seems they have to herd. If you’ve ever owned a cat, you know what a challenge that can be. Asked to describe the Millennial population, managers use expressions such…
I’ve written a series of blogs focusing on the urgency of addressing gender diversity in new and customized ways, pointing out that approaches currently used are unlikely to break the glass ceiling http://stangercarlson.com/2013/08/27/developing-women-is-risky-business/ http://stangercarlson.com/2013/08/28/women-in-waiting/ http://stangercarlson.com/2013/08/29/designing-for-women/. I’ve also explained the value of diversity from a business standpoint http://stangercarlson.com/2013/07/24/unlocking-diversity/. Now along comes an HBR blog piece that…
My last two blogs have focused on gender diversity and the need to design the right approach for your company. My message has been to look at so-called best practices, but don’t just copy them. The key to results is within your company rather than by emulating the failed approaches of others. First, I focused…
A recent HBR blog piece, How Women Drive Innovation and Growth, describes just how large a market women represent, controlling an estimated $20 trillion in global consumer spending — a growth market more than twice as big as India and China combined. It then goes on to make the case for diversity. After all, how…
In a most persuasive HBR blog piece: Women Don’t Need to Lead Better Than Men. They Need to Lead Differently, Debora Spar, President of Barnard College, makes a compelling case for greater gender diversity in senior executive ranks. She points out that only 15% to 20% of women are able to reach this level despite…
A recent HBR Blog piece Closing the Chasm Between Strategy and Execution makes a compelling case for strategists and executors collaborating with each focused on assuring that the others are successful. I’d like to build on this case by looking at who the Executors are and what it really takes to be confident in executing…